International humanitarian law offers protection to hospitals during wartime – attacking them is considered a war crime – but this is rescinded if the facility is used for “acts harmful to the enemy”.
These can include, according to the Geneva Conventions, using medical facilities to shelter able-bodied combatants, as a place to store weapons, or as an observation post.
The IDF says Hamas routinely uses hospitals for these purposes and has long sought to position Al Shifa as a headquarters and command post, all of which Hamas denies.
This has served as justification for airstrikes at hospital compounds, cutting power and the free supply of aid, and telling civilians to leave the facilities and head south.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the general secretary of the World Health Organisation, called the raids on Wednesday “totally unacceptable”.
What evidence does the IDF have?
The raid on Al Shifa came after the United States said its intelligence confirmed IDF claims of significant infrastructure under the hospital.
The IDF released walk-through videos at Al Shifa and Al Rantisi hospitals in which it displayed about 20 rifles, explosives and other military equipment.
Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus shows a “grab bag” containing weapons and Hamas uniform behind an MRI machine at Al Shifa.Credit: IDF
That included at least three “grab bags” at Al Shifa – essentially a soldier’s kit, containing a vest, rifle, ammunition, a live grenade and uniform.
Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, a key IDF spokesman, presented one of those bags hidden behind an MRI machine as evidence militants were deliberately concealing weapons at the hospital. He also showed a security camera that had been taped over next to the largest collection of rifles the IDF presented in a hospital so far: about 10 at the bottom of a cupboard containing fuse boxes.
It says these finds justify actions it has taken in and around Al Shifa, but as of Thursday afternoon (AEDT) was yet to release evidence of tunnel systems or a major stockpile of weapons.
There was also no sign of the 240 hostages Hamas took back to Gaza during its bloody October 7 incursion in Israel.
In the videos, the IDF pointed to baby bottles, the presence of a toilet in a basement, and a chair found next to rope and women’s clothing as suggestions hostages had been held in the hospitals at some stage.
What now?
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It is likely the IDF will publish more footage from the Al Shifa, given its forces were still operating there on Thursday.
It said the east side of the Al Shifa complex will remain open as somewhere people can evacuate from. It has for weeks encouraged people to evacuate the facility and head to south Gaza.