Israel’s intelligence minister Gila Gamliel has been speaking to BBC Radio 4.
She was asked repeatedly about what specific intelligence Israel had for its claims that Hamas had a command centre under Gaza’s largest hospital – Al Shifa.
Gamliel did not give details, though she reiterated the Israel Defence Forces’ assertion, in a post on X in the past hour
, that Hamas had attacked Israeli soldiers with an RPG from the entrance of al-Quds hospital.
She said Hamas military facilities were located near and even under UN facilities, as well as mosques and schools. Hamas was making “extensive use” of hospitals, medical institutions and ambulances for military purposes, and using Gazans as human shields, she added.
Asked about progress in negotiations on the release of more than 200 Israeli and foreign nationals being held hostage in Gaza, she said Israel did not differentiate between the abductees on the basis of their citizenship or other criteria. She added that Israel was doing everything it could to work for their freedom.
Gamliel called for the hostages’ immediate and unconditional release, and for the Red Cross to be permitted to visit them.
Doctors in Gaza have told the BBC that dead bodies are piling up and beginning to rot inside and around Al-Shifa hospital.
Dr. Marwan Al-Barsh who is the director-general of the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza said there were, “more than a hundred corpses” piled up in the courtyard, with the situation exacerbated by a lack of fuel to power the mortuaries.
“The electricity was cut off by the Israeli occupation forces that targeted the generators, which led to the decomposition and rotting of the corpses as we see worms coming out of them”, Al-Barsh said on BBC Arabic’s Gaza Lifeline programme.
Al-Bursh said they were struggling to bury their dead because of threats from the IDF.
“We tried to co-ordinate with the occupation forces so that we would be allowed to bury the dead bodies inside the hospital, yet anyone who attempts to get out of the hospital is directly shot.”
Israel asserts that there is a Hamas command centre underneath Al-Shifa – IDF spokeswoman Libby Weiss said: “We know that with certainty.” Hamas and hospital authorities deny this.
