The Israeli military is alleged to have discovered a tunnel shaft utilized by Hamas militants at Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital. It launched a video that confirmed a tunnel entrance in an out of doors space of the besieged territory’s largest hospital. The video confirmed a deep gap within the floor, plagued by and surrounded by concrete and wooden rubble and sand.

The military stated its troops additionally discovered a car within the hospital containing numerous weapons. “EXPOSED: In the Shifa Hospital complicated, IDF troops discovered a hidden booby-trapped car containing numerous weapons, together with AK-47s, RPGs, sniper rifles, grenades, and different explosives,” the IDF stated in a publish on X, previously generally known as Twitter.

Hamas Denies and US Confirms

Israeli special forces raided the hospital Wednesday after saying it was the site of an underground command center for Hamas. Israel released a photo and video Thursday of what it called an “operational tunnel shaft.” In an announcement late on Thursday, Hamas stated that claims by the Pentagon and U.S. State Department that the group makes use of Al Shifa for army functions “is a repetition of a blatantly false narrative, demonstrated by the weak and ridiculous performances of the occupation military spokesman.”

The intelligence the US says it has collected that Hamas was using Al-Shifa Hospital as a command node is primarily signals intelligence, three people familiar with the assessment told CNN. On Thursday, White House spokesperson John Kirby said the United States is confident in an assessment from its own intelligence agencies on Hamas activities in Al Shifa hospital and will neither share nor elaborate on it.

“Our own intelligence assessment is that Hamas was using — is using Al-Shifa as a command-and-control node and potentially as a — as a storage facility to support their — to support their planning and their execution of terrorist attacks in the region — again, placing these people at greater risk, the staff and the patients at that hospital,” Kirby stated throughout a press briefing. “And we’re assured in our personal intelligence evaluation of that. And I’ll let the Israelis communicate to — to what’s, fairly frankly, an ongoing army operation,” he added.

AID HALTED

Israeli leaders have declared control over the northern part of Gaza, including Gaza City, raising concerns of a potential ground offensive into the southern enclave. Aid organizations warn that such a move by Israel could exacerbate an already dire humanitarian situation in the region. The two telecoms companies in the enclave said all energy sources supplying the network had run out and therefore all services in the territory were down.

Israel refuses fuel imports, saying Hamas could use them for military purposes. With communications out and in the absence of fuel, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said it was impossible to coordinate humanitarian aid truck convoys. “If the fuel does not come in, people will start to die because of the lack of fuel. Exactly as from when, I don’t know. But it will be sooner rather than later,” stated UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini.

Since the October 7 assault that claimed the lives of 1,200 individuals in Israel, Palestinian civilians have borne the brunt of the retaliatory army marketing campaign towards Hamas. Gaza well being authorities say no less than 11,500 individuals have been confirmed killed in an Israeli bombardment. The Israeli army’s chief of employees stated Israel was near destroying Hamas’ army system within the northern Gaza Strip and there have been indicators the military was taking its marketing campaign to different components of the enclave of two.3 million individuals.