Israel Claims Hamas Used Hospital Basement for Weapons, Hostage Storage

Facts

• Israeli forces have reportedly captured the al-Rantisi Children's Hospital in Gaza City, and has claimed the discovery of evidence that Israeli hostages had been held in the hospital's basement. However, the allegations have not yet been independently verified.¹
• This comes a day after the Israeli military shared videos and photographs of what it said was a Hamas command center in the basement of al-Rantisi Children's Hospital, alleging it was being used by militants to store weapons and explosives, including grenades and suicide vests.²
• Also this week, two Israeli lawmakers — Danny Danon from the ruling Likud party and Ram Ben-Barak from the opposition Yesh Atid party — called on 'countries around the world to accept limited numbers of Gazan families who have expressed a desire to relocate.'³
• In an op-ed piece published in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Danon and Ben-Barak lambasted the UN for 'doing nothing tangible to help Gaza's residents' and urged the West to 'explore potential solutions to help civilians caught in the crisis.'⁴
• In other news, the IDF has confirmed the death of 19-year-old Cpl. Noa Marciano, one of around 240 people abducted during Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, calling her a 'fallen soldier held captive by a terror group.'⁵
• As of Tuesday evening, over 11K people in the Gaza Strip had reportedly been killed, over half of which were women and children, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The official Israeli death toll, meanwhile, stands at 1.2K.⁶

Sources: ¹RTE, ²Reuters, ³The Wall Street Journal, ⁴The Times of Israel, ⁵New York Post and ⁶AA.

Narratives

• Pro-Israel narrative, as provided by The Times of Israel. Israel has presented evidence that terrorists from Hamas have placed their headquarters underneath hospitals in Gaza, specifically to use civilians at the facilities as human shields. Despite this, Israel, which has the right to defend its borders, is doing everything it can to minimize harm to the civilian population.
• Pro-Palestine narrative, as provided by Middle East Eye. Even if Israel's claims that Hamas is using hospitals as bases of operations are valid, it has an obligation under international humanitarian law to protect hospitals during armed conflicts. Since Tel Aviv is committing horrendous human rights violations in Gaza, the international community must step up efforts to end the assault on Palestinians.

Predictions