Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has confirmed to CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour that the bunkers under Al-Shifa Hospital were “originally built by Israeli constructors” when the settler-colonial state maintained its physical occupation of the Gaza Strip.
“Decades ago, we were running the place, so we held them for decades, many decades ago, maybe five or four decades ago, that we helped them to build these bunkers in order to enable more space for the operation of the hospital within the very limited size of this compound,” explained Barak.
Since storming Al-Shifa several days ago, it has become clear that the occupation army lied with its claims that tunnels under the hospital were a military headquarters built by Hamas. The army has failed to provide any evidence for its allegations. The World Health Organisation (WHO) announced on Monday that its staff had only ever seen civilians in the medical facility.
The Israeli occupation army has forced patients and medical teams to leave the hospital despite the difficult conditions. Those forced out include 28 premature babies who were evacuated from Al-Shifa to Egypt via the Rafah border crossing.