https://huffpost.com/entry/israel-claims-hamas-al-shifa-hospital-not-supported-evidence-washington-post_n_6584ae91e4b04da98426441c

There is not sufficient public evidence to support Israel’s claims that a Gaza hospital the country raided had served as a Hamas command center, according to a Washington Post investigation published Thursday.

The Israeli raid on al-Shifa Hospital last month, which was preceded by an evacuation order aimed at thousands of people sheltering at the hospital and hundreds of sick patients, produced one of the grisliest scenes in the country’s ground invasion of the Gaza Strip: a “death zone” that included a mass grave at the entrance of the hospital and dozens of desperate patients inside, according to the World Health Organization, whose aid workers arrived at the facility on Nov. 18 as part of a humanitarian mission.

Forty patients, including four premature babies, died in the hospital due to a lack of electricity in the days surrounding the raid, hospital administrators told the United Nations.

Israel had asserted that the hospital was used to direct rocket attacks and command fighters, and that Hamas tunnels could be accessed from five specific hospital buildings. And a U.S. administration official told the Post last week, “We are absolutely confident in the intelligence ... that Hamas was using it as a command and control node.”

But in an analysis based on satellite imagery, open-source visual information and releases from the Israeli military, the Post found that available evidence didn’t support these claims, and that its reporting raised questions about the legitimacy of the raid under international law. Hamas has denied Israel’s assertions about how the hospital was used.