Israeli troops again entered al-Shifa hospital en masse on Thursday, for the second time in as many days.
Their search so far appears to have failed to uncover Hamas’s alleged underground command center, which the Israeli side adamantly insists is beneath medical facilities.
Hamas, hospital staff and several international organizations with access to the hospital all say there are no military installations or soldiers in al-Shifa. They said it housed only exhausted doctors and overworked nurses caring for increasing numbers of patients in increasingly difficult conditions, exacerbated by hundreds of terrified Palestinians who fled the destruction of their homes to take refuge in the relative safety of the complex.
One of Israel’s main claims, obviously intended to justify attacks on Gaza’s hospital complexes, was that Hamas had revoked the protected status of medical facilities, using them for military purposes, thus giving Israel the right to attack and enter hospitals, while accusing the Palestinian Armed Group.
The Israeli military has gone to great lengths to “prove” its allegations, but the results obtained so far do not support them. Earlier this week, journalists from a US television station embedded with the invading forces were taken to al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital by none other than its chief spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. The press team saw a few Kalashnikovs and a motorcycle, among other things. Hagari went out of his way to try to convince the media and the world that this was proof of his camp’s allegations.
His claims were echoed in al-Shifa by his subordinate, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, who presented as “evidence of terrorist activity” half a dozen AK assault rifles with their magazines removed, a computer laptop and, in a Monty Pythonesque moment, two cans of WD40. anti-rust spray.
Anyone who has spent time in the Middle East or in a war knows that the venerable Kalashnikovs are present virtually everywhere. It is normal and legal for hospitals to have armed guards to protect them from criminals, looters and anyone who would abuse them.
But apart from the ignorance of these assertions and the enormous discrepancy between the demonstration of a few weapons and the claim of a main command center from where Hamas carried out its operations, the place where these weapons were allegedly found is curious: the jubilant Conricus was adamant that they were hidden. in the MRI room.
Anyone who has been examined by an MRI machine knows that they had to remove all metal objects.
I asked an x-ray specialist if it was possible to hide weapons in this room. The answer: “As soon as the machine was turned on, it would pull out the weapons and attach them to itself. » The MRI machine cannot work with guns. Asking anyone to believe that a hospital in Gaza would abandon one of its main diagnostic machines to hide a bag containing a few weapons is simply absurd.
The Israeli army managed to take the ground in Gaza, at least on the outskirts of the city proper, with some deeper incursions into urban areas, such as the advance towards al-Shifa, with a fairly low number of casualties and limited material losses. .
But he failed to discover – or show – any underground command centers or major tunnels. He was seen and filmed descending some wells, unopposed, but he does not appear to have actually gone underground.
Having failed to produce the underground command center, the Israeli army on Thursday evening showed a hole in the ground, claiming it was the entrance to a Hamas military tunnel. Until the media are allowed in and check it out for themselves, they will have to balance this claim with the counter-suggestion that this is an access point for an underground electrical cable.
I have no doubt about the existence of Hamas’s underground bunkers, communications nodes, power plants, storage facilities and command centers.
If you argue your case underground, as Hamas obviously did, devoting substantial resources and enormous effort to building the network, then you are building an integrated network. Anything other than building multiple command facilities in depth would be amateurish and downright foolish.
Any expert must be certain that such a “beating heart of Hamas,” as the Israeli army called it, does indeed exist somewhere beneath Gaza. But apparently, and perhaps even certainly, not under al-Shifa Hospital.
As the aerial bombardments continue, many observers have failed to notice that aside from raids on hospitals, there has been very little movement on the ground for nearly a week. Large Israeli columns are entrenched awaiting orders, but there is no indication when they might advance further, nor in what direction and by what means.
For its part, Hamas has also remained very silent. It had put up some resistance to the initial Israeli advance, but had limited it to opportunistic attacks intended more to probe the enemy and show the flag than to actually stop the army before it reached the city. Its Qassam Brigades seem to want to remain discreet, knowing that sooner or later the Israeli army will have to move underground to find and destroy the tunnels and command centers. They can’t win by staying on the field.
So what happens next?
If the fighting is to continue, Israel will have to act first. Hamas can wait longer than the Israeli army. The Palestinians can let the Israelis stew in their own stew, knowing that discontent over the failure to produce tangible results will further strengthen voices of protest and opposition to the continuation of the war.
There are signs that the army is aware of the need to show some success to the Israeli public and is resorting to standard public relations operations.
On Wednesday evening, the 35th Parachute Brigade awarded the maroon berets to new recruits inside the Gaza territory. There is virtually no military justification for choosing to hold the ceremony in the middle of destroyed and depopulated buildings.
But someone in the Israeli military is obviously hoping that the sentiment generated by the symbolic raising of Israeli flags in the occupied Palestinian territory – and several other flags were raised Thursday among the rubble of Gaza – will buy them time before the public begins to ask the unpopular question. : “Are we defeating Hamas?