In what may be considered as a bombshell revelation, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak recently exposed the Benjamin Netanyahu Administration's propaganda against the Palestinian Hamas Movement, saying: "It had already been known that Israel built bunkers beneath the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza." Earlier, Tel Aviv claimed that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) discovered a 55mt terrorist tunnel used by Hamas as its command outpost.
In the third week of November 2023, Barak told CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour that Israeli constructors had built some bunkers underneath the war-torn hospital in Gaza "many decades ago". He said that those were constructed after Tel Aviv occupied Gaza. Meanwhile, the former Prime Minister stated that those bunkers were built "to enable more space for operation of the hospital". He added: "… was used as a Hamas command outpost… it was at the junction of several tunnels (that were) part of this system. I do not know to what extent it is 'major'… probably not only command outposts… there are others under other hospitals or sensitive places, but for sure it was used by Hamas."
Former Prime Minister Barak told the American journalist that Israel used to run the place four decades ago. At that period of time, the Jewish nation helped the Gazans build these bunkers. It may be noted that Israeli news outlet Haaretz reported in 2009 that Tel Aviv had expanded the Al-Shifa Hospital in the 1980s, when Gaza was under control of Egypt. According to Haaretz, the "large cement basement housed the hospital's laundry and various administrative services". Meanwhile, Barak admitted that Hamas might have expanded those bunkers later and linked them to other tunnels.
Barak argued that as Israel had sufficient information about those bunkers, the IDF took a cautious approach while storming the Al-Shifa Hospital. He explained that the Israeli tanks first surrounded the hospital and the IDF allowed Hamas operatives to take time for vacating the area. As Hamas members were in a hurry to leave the place, they failed to erase the traces of their activities in the underground medical facility. "We warned for many days we are going to come here. Then we came, very cautiously, in order to avoid loss of lives among doctors, patients… As a result, Hamas had all the time in the world to try to make it less apparent that it (the bunker) was in use. But we are confident that for years it was used… as a major or non-major… command outpost for Hamas activities," Barak told CNN.
Ahead of Barak's revelation, Israel repeatedly blasted Hamas for constructing a Command Centre in a tunnel network underneath the hospital in Gaza. However, the Palestinian Movement rejected the claim, acknowledging that it only had a vast network of secret tunnels, bunkers and access shafts throughout the Gaza Strip. In the second week of November, Israel released footage of the tunnel entrance situated near the residence of a Hamas operative, stressing that the tunnel was fortified with an explosives-proof door. The IDF also released images of weapons that were found inside the tunnel. Hamas promptly rejected the claim, insisting that it was "cheap propaganda".
Interestingly, the international media are yet to confirm that there is a tunnel beneath the Al-Shifa Hospital and that Hamas set up a command outpost there. Meanwhile, Israel has assured the global community that it would establish this fact in order to counter growing international pressure to cease military operations that have already claimed more than 10,000 lives in Gaza. It seems that both Israel and Hamas would go on to make allegations and counter-allegations against one another over these secret(!) tunnels.
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