The Sanad Digital Investigations Agency has denied the latest claim by Israeli authorities that there was a tunnel for Hamas militants under the Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Hospital for Rehabilitation and Prosthetic Hospital, also known as the Qatari Hospital.
Earlier, Israeli authorities claimed that command bunkers and major tunnels were located under Gaza hospitals, an excuse for attacking medical facilities protected by international law in wartime.
The Israeli military published a video showing a hatch in the hospital courtyard that allegedly led to a Hamas tunnel. However, Sanad’s investigation reveals that the hatch from the video leads to a water tank that the hospital uses to fill therapeutic pools for amputees, irrigate the grounds and serve as a backup water source in case of an emergency.
Sanad analysed satellite footage and construction archives of a hospital built by Qatar in 2019, and spoke to one of the engineers who built it. Like other hospitals in the besieged Gaza Strip, it has been damaged by Israeli aerial strikes.
During the war in Gaza, Israel claimed that some hospitals in the Gaza Strip, such as Al-Shifa, the largest in the enclave, served as cover for Hamas tunnels and were subsequently involved in the group’s activities.
Israel uses this allegation as justification for repeatedly bombing the vicinity of the hospitals, which receive not only patients but also displaced persons from all over Gaza.
The death toll in the enclave has surpassed 10,000, including over 4,000 children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
