OAN’s Brooke Mallory
2:51 PM – Monday, November 13, 2023
The 401st Armored Brigade and the Navy’s elite Shayetet 13 commander unit raided Gaza City’s Rantisi Hospital and found Hamas members residing there, according to IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.
Hagari claimed that he had just returned from visiting the hospital in order to film there and that the IDF had proof of captives being held in discreet areas.
“Underneath the hospital, in the basement, we found a Hamas command and control center, suicide-bomb vests, grenades, AK-47 assault rifles, explosive devices, RPGs, and other weapons, computers, money, etc,” Hagari says, in an English-translated press conference.
“We also found signs that indicate that Hamas held hostages here,” he continued, adding: “this is currently under our investigation,” and that the IDF has intelligence proof.
“Additionally, we found evidence that Hamas terrorists came back from the massacre [in southern Israel] on October 7 to this hospital, among others, after butchering Israelis in their homes… Hamas hides in hospitals. Today, we will expose this to the world.”
Video- English translation: “Exclusive documentation from the raid of the 13th Fleet and the 401st Brigade’s combat team on the ‘Rantissi’ hospital.”
According to Hagari, for the last week, the IDF has been trying to make it possible for patients to safely evacuate from Rantisi and other hospitals in northern Gaza.
“Israel helped the hospital managers evacuate the Gaza patients to a safer hospital,” he says, including that the IDF has been told that “the last 18 patients in the Rantisi Hospital had safely evacuated to a safer hospital.”
“This is because our war is against Hamas, not against the people in Gaza. Especially not the sick, the women, or the children,” he continues.
“Our war is against Hamas who uses them as human shields,” Hagari asserted.
Hagari demonstrated a Hamas arsenal complete with explosives, RPGs, and grenades in the Rantisi basement. He draws attention to the risks that bombs under hospitals pose to nearby civilians.
He displayed a motorcycle in the basement that he thinks the October 7th terrorists rode—possibly while holding a prisoner. Hagari also pointed out what he claims are other clues suggesting captives were kept there, such as a makeshift restroom and other hostage-holding facilities close by.
According to the official, Israeli forensic teams are now en route to the hospital to further examine the evidence.
“We are trying to shift the Gazans to a safe area in the south and reveal those hospitals as terror machines,” Hagari said. “The world should know it. And the world should not forget those crimes against humanity done to Israel.
“We will free our hostages from Gaza, and free Gaza from Hamas for the sake of the people of Israel, for the people of Gaza as well, and the world.”
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