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IDF reveals: How intel led Israel to Hamas’s Shifa terror tunnel
The IDF on Sunday unveiled its military moves and intelligence process which led to revealing Hamas’s 55-meter-long tunnel at Al-Shifa Hospital.
According to the IDF, close to the time when the IDF was weighing entering Al-Shifa, there was Shin Bet and IDF intelligence which indicated that Hamas forces were in the Qatar facility and the MRI facility of the complex.
Eventually, the IDF would find many items of terror infrastructure in many places, but the IDF Shaldag special forces’ original mission was to get to those two facilities as quickly as possible, starting with the Qatari facility.
How the IDF entered Al-Shifa Hospital
The IDF entered the complex by blowing through a side wall, as opposed to the main entrance, near a booby-trapped pickup truck to get to the Qatar facility as quickly as possible.
Eventually, a mix of drones and special units searching for the tunnel found a suspicious-looking small covered structure.
The IDF destroyed the structure with a D9 bulldozer, and only after destroying it, was the IDF able to detect the hidden top of the tunnel.
Once it found the tunnel, the IDF used various technologies to inspect the tunnel, finding it had a long spiral stairwell.
Eventually, the IDF arrived deep into the tunnel and was stopped by thick reinforced doors.
The IDF was working on a plan to breach the doors to continue to follow the tunnel, either to other tunnels or out into open areas.
IDF intelligence estimates that Hamas battalion commanders used such tunnels from Al-Shifa’s strategic location and large size, to easily maneuver between different neighborhoods and fronts without the IDF being able to track them from the air.
More tunnels likely to be found, Israeli intel indicates
Further, intelligence estimates indicate that other tunnels are likely to be found shortly.
The IDF also gave a more exact distance of 50-100 meters from Al-Shifa for its location of the bodies of multiple Israelis taken by Hamas on October 7, whose remains have been brought back to Israel.
It was unclear how long the IDF would remain in control of Al-Shifa and would continue to uncover aspects of Hamas’s use of the area for terror purposes.
But if in the first 24 hours of the operation, the IDF was considering wrapping up the inspections within days, it seems now that the IDF will take much longer to continue to meticulously uncover all Hamas connections to the area.
It is unclear when and if the hospital will return to service any earlier than whenever the full-on stage of the war ends.
This is a developing story.