The Israel Defense Forces have released CCTV videos and still images that they say show Hamas fighters taking hostages to Al-Shifa Hospital on October 7.
IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari presented two short videos, along with several still images, which he said show Hamas fighters carrying the hostages (a Nepalese and a Thai) through the hospital, the most great of Gaza.
One of the CCTV videos shows a hostage being admitted to the hospital through the main entrance, Hagari said. The hostage is being forcibly taken through the building.
Hagari, at a news conference on Sunday, said the second CCTV video shows a second hostage, who has a bandaged hand and is clearly bleeding, being pushed on a stretcher down a hallway to a room.
Hagari did not explain how the IDF had acquired the videos, although he did say that Israeli intelligence officers were part of the operation inside the hospital to try to locate the hostages.
CNN cannot independently verify the content of the videos and still images.
Opposing narratives: The Hamas-led Gaza Health Ministry responded to the IDF briefing by questioning the authenticity of the videos and photographs, but went on to say that, if true, the images showed that the hospitals were providing medical care to anyone that I needed it.
The IDF spokesman dismissed suggestions that the hostages had been taken to the hospital because they were injured, stating that one of the two hostages was not injured and did not need medical treatment. They were first taken to the hospital and then moved to hiding places, such as nearby apartments, he said.
“If medical care had been provided in the hospital, if the hostages had remained there, then the Red Cross would have come and the people would have been freed. None of these things happened,” he said.
In a statement issued on Saturday before the release of the CCTV videos, Hamas said it had taken several hostages to hospitals for medical treatment after they were injured in Israeli airstrikes.
Hagari said the latest videos had been shared with diplomats from the hostages’ countries of origin, adding that the IDF has not yet located the Nepali and Thai hostages in Gaza.
The Nepalese Embassy in Israel and the Nepalese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had confirmed to CNN before the release of the video that a Nepali citizen remained missing after the October 7 attack and was believed to have been taken hostage by Hamas.
Ten Nepalese citizens were killed and several others injured when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, Nepal’s ambassador to Israel told CNN after the attack.
More context: Following the assault on Al-Shifa Hospital last Wednesday, the IDF is under tremendous pressure to prove its long-standing claim that Hamas uses Gaza’s largest medical center for combat and command purposes.
The military on Sunday also released video from inside an exposed tunnel in the Al-Shifa complex, showing an underground tunnel extending downward from the tunnel opening.
