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In what appears to be a significant attempt to prepare public opinion ahead of a major ground offensive inside Gaza, the Israeli army has accused the Strips largest hospital, Al Shifa, of being the site of a major Hamas command and control center.
Army spokesperson Daniel Hagari accused Hamas of directing rocket attacks and commanding Hamas operations from bunkers underneath the hospital building, which he said was linked to the network of tunnels that Hamas has dug underneath Gaza City.
He claimed other hospitals inside Gaza were also being used by Hamas in similar ways during a media presentation that included aerial photos, graphics and voice recordings,

"When medical facilities are used for terror purposes, they are liable to lose their protection from attack in accordance with international law," Hagari said, appearing to suggest such hospitals were now firmly and publicly on Israels target list.

The army would "continue making efforts to minimize harm to the civilian population," he added.
Hagari offered only one piece of evidence at the presentation: a phone call purporting to be between two Gazans discussing the presence of Hamas headquarters at the hospital.
He said Israel had more evidence that he could not yet make public, but which had been shared with what he called the intelligence community, which had accepted Israels allegations, he said.
Palestinians rejected the Israeli army claim.
The Director General of the Gaza Health Ministry, Dr. Medhat Abbas, told CNNs Eleni Giokos that Gazas hospitals, "are used to treat patients only" and are not being used "to hide anyone."
Hamas also rejected the claim, calling on the United Nations, Arab and Islamic countries to immediately intervene to stop the madness of bombing and destroying the medical system."
Mustafa Barghouti of the Palestine National Initiative based in Ramallah said Israel was lying.

They keep lying to justify criminal acts against a civilian population, now they want to justify attacking people in a hospital he told Sky News.

And Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian physician who has worked at the hospital on several occasions, including during three periods of open hostilities between Hamas and Israel, called the allegations old.

We heard these unsubstantiated claims during the 2009 and 2014 attacks. We have never seen any single sign or proof, weve had zero restrictions on filming and photographing in Shifa, and have never been controlled in any ways, he told CNN.

Hagari, the Army spokesperson, also addressed the issue of fuel stocks, which Israel says Hamas continues to divert from civilian purposes towards powering its military campaign.
Hagari played a voice recording which he said was a conversation between an Israeli army officer and a "senior Gazan energy official" in which the purported energy official says that Hamas has "at least a million liters" of diesel, and that some its fuel is being used to provide ventilation and lighting in tunnels.
On Thursday, a World Health Organization spokesperson told CNN that more than one-third of hospitals in Gaza and nearly two-thirds of primary health care clinics have shut down due to damage from hostilities or lack of fuel.