Anadolu photos dispel Israeli claim about Hamas tunnel at Qatar-funded hospital in Gaza

By Ramzi Mahmoud

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – Photos captured by Anadolu have dispelled Israeli claims about Hamas’ use of tunnels under a Qatari-funded hospital in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army has released photos and videos it said showed Hamas operatives emerging from a tunnel opening at the Sheikh Hamad Hospital.

Anadolu photos, however, showed that the opening was not of a tunnel but belonged to a water well on the hospital’s grounds.

The photos displayed the well opening with an iron cover and a one-and-a-half-long ladder at its bottom descending to a water collection point.

The photos also revealed the massive destruction caused by Israeli army forces before their withdrawal from Gaza’s northwestern areas.

In November, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said that a tunnel used by Hamas was discovered in the Sheikh Hamad Hospital.

But Qatar slammed the Israeli claim, saying it was ‘without concrete evidence or independent investigation…and a blatant attempt to justify the occupation’s targeting of civilian facilities, including hospitals, schools, gatherings of population and shelters of displaced people.”

The hospital was inaugurated in Gaza in 2019 as part of a financial grant worth $407 million to carry out a number of reconstruction projects in the Palestinian enclave.

Israel has launched a deadly offensive on Gaza following an Oct. 7 Hamas attack, killing at least 27,365 Palestinians and injuring 66,630 others. Nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala