The Israeli military has encircled Gaza City, with the navy covering the metropolis’s Mediterranean shore, and is carrying out widespread air strikes on Hamas targets.
“There are now widespread strikes on terror infrastructure, below ground and above it,” Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said on Sunday night.
The strikes are targeting tunnels, ammunition, and rockets all around the Shifa Hospital complex. Hamas expects the IDF will enter the hospitals in one or two days.
According to statements made by Hamas figures, it appears the IDF is encircling a triangle area of three medical centers where Hamas maintains its headquarters, the Shifa, Al-Quds and Indonesian hospitals.
Earlier on Sunday, Israel presented evidence to reporters that Hamas also uses the Qatari-funded Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani Hospital to wage its terrorist war. This included visual proof of a terrorist tunnel entrance that was exposed by Israeli soldiers and a video of Hamas fighters firing on Israeli troops from the medical facility.
Hagari also showed footage of Hamas rocket launching pads located 75 meters (a bit over 80 yards) from the Indonesian Hospital, which was built in 2016 on top of already-existing underground terrorist facilities.
Hamas’s main headquarters is located under the massive Shifa Hospital complex in Gaza City.
Hamas makes extensive use of Shifa Hospital. Knowing that Israel would not attack a hospital, Hamas leaders hide there, fire rockets from its compound, hide hostages in the bowels of the building, torture collaborators there, and dig tunnels connecting Shifa to nearby sites. On Friday, Israel released a recording of a phone call confirming that Hamas also stores at least a half-million liters (132,000 gallons) of fuel underneath Shifa.
“Hamas is hiding behind hospitals, sickly behind hospitals to hide its war machine,” Hagari told the reporters. “We will not accept Hamas’s cynical use of hospitals to hide their terror infrastructure. It must come to an end. It is a war crime.”
