TEL AVIV: Israel published video Sunday of what it described as a tunnel dug by Palestinian militants under the Gaza Strip’s Shifa Hospital, a focus of its search-and-destroy missions against Hamas militants.
While acknowledging that it has a network of hundreds of kilometers of secret tunnels, bunkers and access shafts throughout the Palestinian enclave, Hamas has denied that these are in civilian infrastructure like hospitals.
In Sunday’s update on operations at Shifa, the Israeli military said its engineers uncovered a tunnel 10 meters deep and running 55 meters to a blast-proof door.
“This type of door is used by the Hamas terrorist organization to block Israeli forces from entering the command centers and the underground assets belonging to Hamas,” said a military statement accompanied by a video showing a narrow passage with arched concrete roofing, ending at a grey door.
At least 31 very sick, premature babies have been evacuated from Shifa Hospital and will be transported to a hospital in Egypt, the World Health Organization said Sunday.
Meanwhile, two Palestinians were killed overnight in Israeli raids on the occupied West Bank.
On the diplomatic front, Michael Herzog, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., told ABC’s “This Week” show that Israel is “hopeful we can get a significant number of hostages [held by Hamas] freed in the next few days,” with an accompanying short pause in the fighting, possibly lasting five days.
U.S. news reports say about 50 hostages, particularly women and children, of the estimated 240 held by Hamas could be returned to Israel, but it is unclear whether and how many Palestinian prisoners held by Israel might be released.
Herzog refused to call any cessation in fighting a cease-fire, signaling that Israel plans to resume its attack on Hamas targets after the pause ends.
(VOA)
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