Former Israeli PM says Israel helped build bunker under al-Shifa Hospital

In an interview with CNN, the former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak said that Israel “helped build bunkers under al-Shifa Hospital”.

Barak said that Israel had built the bunkers when asked about his view that there is a “command centre” at al-Shifa.

“It is already known for many years that there are bunkers that were originally built by Israeli constructors underneath al-Shifa and were used as command centre by Hamas, as part of the system. I don’t know to what extent it is used as a major one, but it has for sure been used by Hamas,” he said.

When pressed to clarify, Barak maintained that Israeli engineers constructed the bunkers. 

“Decades ago, they were running the place, we [Israel] helped them build these bunkers to create more space for operations of the hospital within the limited size of the complex,” he added.

The interviewee challenges Barak, saying that Israel is yet to show conclusive evidence that Hamas is using al-Shifa Hospital as a command centre.