The Israeli army provided misleading information about an alleged Hamas tunnel under the European Hospital located in Khan Younis, after heavily bombing it twice within 24 hours, Israeli media reported on Thursday.
Aerial footage released by the army purportedly shows a tunnel located at the nearby Jenin School in the southern Gaza Strip city, and not beneath or near a hospital, as the army originally claimed.
The footage was released by the Israeli army on Tuesday, hours after strikes on the hospital, under the title "The European Hospital".
In the video, a building is shown with markings around it, signing to what the army described as exposed underground infrastructure. A message on the footage read: "The IDF and Shin Bet security service destroyed a Hamas underground terror infrastructure located beneath the European Hospital in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip."
Israeli forces killed at least 16 Palestinians and wounded 70 more on Tuesday, after violent airstrikes targeted the enclave’s European Hospital, the ministry of health reported. At least nine Israeli missiles struck the hospitals, various reports said.
Six craters from the fierce strikes were seen inside and outside the hospital grounds, including at the entrance to the emergency room and the main road which gives access to the hospital, analysis of the footage by Haaretz revealed.
The army, in a joint statement with the Israeli General Security Service, said the airstrikes targeted "a command-and-control complex established within Hamas infrastructure beneath the European Hospital," and that the operation was "a precise attack against Hamas operatives".
On Wednesday, Israeli media reported that the attack was part of an assassination attempt on Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar.
Over 65 Palestinians were killed across Gaza on Wednesday morning alone, with largescale damage done to the European Hospital and no confirmation on the success of the operation to kill Sinwar.
Hamas, in response, said "the occupation’s [Israel] claims of the presence of military bases in the vicinity of the hospital are lies and attempts to mislead world public opinion".
According to Haaretz, the Israeli army is yet to clarify whether the school shown in aerial footage was also targeted.
The Israeli army’s Spokesperson’s Unit alleged that the tunnel extended beneath the hospital and to an adjacent area, without providing any evidence to corroborate the claim.
An Israeli security source also said that inaccurate and incorrect footage of the alleged tunnel had been shared with the Israeli army.
Israeli attacks on hospitals
Since the start of the war on Gaza, Israel has repeatedly targeted hospitals and medical centres, despite international condemnation and the violation of human rights and international laws.
Earlier this month, Gaza’s government media office said that Israel’s war on the enclave has destroyed, burned or put out of service 38 hospitals, 81 health centres and 164 health centres.
Israeli forces also heavily bombed the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis this week, with Hamas immediately denouncing the attack and targeting of patients and medical staff.
Last year, an investigation carried out by Forensic Architecture disputed Israeli claims made following their attack on the al-Ahli al-Arab Hospital in October 2023 which killed over 300 Palestinians.
The investigation revealed that the rocket that was shown exploding was caused by an Israeli interceptor, rather than by Hamas rocket salvo.
The al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City has also been besieged and was bombarded several times since the start of the war.
In November 2023, an Israeli airstrike hit ambulances around the hospital's main entrance, killing and wounding 21 people according to Human Rights Watch. The ambulances were evacuating wounded people to Rafah in southern Gaza.
In April last year, another brutal siege of the hospital devastated the building. According to the Israeli army, some 900 people were detained on the grounds of Al-Shifa Hospital during the siege, which lasted from 18 March to 1 April.
The army claimed that 500 alleged "terror operatives" from Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad were among those captured.
According to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, over 1,500 Palestinians were either killed, wounded, or are missing because of the operation, including 22 patients who were killed in their hospital beds.