The hatch that Israel claimed was a Hamas tunnel is merely a water reservoir for the hospital.
Sanad, Al Jazeera’s digital analysis company, has refuted the most recent declare by Israeli authorities that there’s a tunnel for Hamas fighters underneath the Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Hospital for Rehabilitation and Prosthetic Hospital, generally often called the Qatari Hospital.
Israeli authorities have usually claimed that command bunkers and most important tunnels run beneath hospitals in Gaza as justification for attacking well being services, that are protected by worldwide regulation in wars.
A digital investigation by Al Jazeera has discovered no foundation for the Israeli Protection Forces’ declare that there’s a Hamas tunnel underneath the Sheikh Hamad Hospital in Gaza ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/4640OprGwk
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) November 7, 2023
A video launched by the Israeli navy confirmed a hatch within the hospital courtyard, proper subsequent to an exterior wall, that they claimed led to a Hamas tunnel.
Nonetheless, Sanad’s analysis exhibits that that is merely the entry hatch for a water reservoir that the hospital makes use of to fill therapeutic swimming pools for amputees, water the grounds and supply a backup water supply in case of emergency.
Sanad analyzed satellite tv for pc photos and archives of the hospital’s building and spoke with one of many authentic engineers who constructed it.
The Qatar-built hospital grew to become operational in 2019.
Like different hospitals within the besieged Gaza Strip, it has been broken by Israel’s brutal aerial bombardment focusing on medical services.
In its warfare in opposition to Gaza, Israel has claimed that sure hospitals in Gaza, reminiscent of Al-Shifa, the enclave’s largest, are hiding locations for Hamas tunnels and are subsequently complicit within the group’s actions.
They declare that this justifies repeated bombings of the encompassing areas of hospitals, which home not solely sufferers, but in addition displaced individuals from throughout Gaza. Consultants have famous that such assaults may quantity to violations of worldwide regulation because of the protected standing of civilians and medical services.
