Headlines News
Israel says CCTV shows hostages at Gaza hospital
The Israeli military has released footage that it says shows hostages being taken into Gaza’s largest hospital after the deadly Hamas attacks on October 7.
A military spokesman said one of them, a soldier, was murdered there.
Cpl Noa Marciano, 19, was killed after being taken into al-Shifa hospital with minor injuries, he said.
Israel said a tunnel had been found at the site, which it claims was a Hamas command centre. Hamas denies that.
The BBC has not been able to verify the video, which was presented at a news briefing by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) on Sunday.
“This morning, we updated Noa’s family that, according to our findings, she was kidnapped to a safe house near Shifa,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, IDF chief spokesperson, told reporters.
“During IDF air strikes in the area, the Hamas terrorist who was holding Noa was killed, and she was wounded in the air strike, but not a life-threatening injury. Noa was taken inside Shifa hospital, where she was murdered by another Hamas terrorist.”
Hamas has previously claimed Ms. Marciano was killed in an Israeli air strike, which the IDF said occurred on November 9.
Rear Adm. Hagari then played CCTV footage, which he said was from the morning of October 7, the day Hamas launched its surprise attack on southern Israel, in which 1,200 Israelis were killed and more than 240 were taken hostage.
The video showed two hostages being brought into the hospital, Gaza’s largest and most modern.
Armed men can be seen in the CCTV video, which is date-stamped for October 7. One of the hostages appears to be resisting; the other is shown on a stretcher.
The IDF has been under pressure to substantiate its claim that Hamas operated an expansive command centre underneath the vast medical complex in the north of the territory.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, responding to the video released by Israel, stated that it could not confirm the authenticity of the footage.
The ministry also said it was Israel that bore full responsibility for the deterioration and collapse of health services in Gaza.
Earlier, the IDF released a video that it said showed a tunnel 10m (33ft) below ground that runs for 55m up to a closed and reinforced door.
It said this was now part of the evidence that “clearly proves” numerous buildings in the hospital’s complex have been “used by Hamas as cover for terrorist infrastructure and activities”.
The latest video is not yet the evidence that’s been promised of the sort of vast and intricate operation depicted in a computer simulation that the IDF previously released, showing what it believes any Hamas base underground at al-Shifa could look like.
