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| On the 15th (local time), an Israeli soldier is seen pointing at weapons such as grenades and firearms at the MRI Center of Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical institution in the Gaza Strip. Reuters-Yonhap News |
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The Israeli military continued to claim that the armed faction Hamas used the hospital for terror, after discovering underground tunnels and weapons during a search of Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical institution in Gaza City, for the second day on the 16th (local time). Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attracted attention by seemingly acknowledging the tragedy of the Gaza Strip, saying, “We were unsuccessful in minimizing civilian casualties” in the crackdown on Hamas.
The Israeli military announced that it had discovered the entrance to a vertical shaft leading to an underground tunnel during a search inside Al-Shifa Hospital that day. In the released 27-second video, a space that appears to be the entrance to a shaft complexly intertwined with rebar and concrete structures between hospital buildings is shown. The Israeli military claimed that a pickup truck loaded with numerous weapons also appeared nearby. From a laptop secured at the hospital the day before, they found photos and videos that appeared to have been taken after Hamas kidnapped hostages, and inferred that Hamas had been in the hospital until a few days ago based on the recent filming. The body of Yehudit Weiss, an Israeli woman hostage kidnapped from southern Israel during a surprise attack by Hamas on the 7th of last month, was also recovered near the hospital.
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| Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Reuters-Yonhap News |
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Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said they had discovered important things at Al-Shifa Hospital for the next phase of ground warfare, adding, “We have taken control of the west of Gaza City and completed the mopping up of Hamas remnants. The next phase of ground warfare has begun.” However, he did not specifically mention what the ‘important things’ found at the hospital were.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Netanyahu appeared on CBS in the U.S. and said, “We tried to minimize civilian casualties, but unfortunately we were not successful.” He claimed that Hamas is trying to hold civilians in dangerous places, even as he acknowledged that “every civilian death is a tragedy.”
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| Medical staff at Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip are using mobile phone flashlights to treat a Palestinian man injured by an Israeli airstrike on the 16th (local time). Reuters-Yonhap News |
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The worst isolation continues throughout the Gaza Strip today as communications and internet are cut off due to fuel shortages. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced today that the internal communication network in the Gaza Strip has been completely cut off due to fuel exhaustion, making it impossible to manage relief supplies, and said, “There will be no relief activities through the Rafah border checkpoint from tomorrow.”
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