The Nasr Hospital in Khan Yunis has been a target for IDF intervention. Israeli intelligence has what it believes to be credible information that hostages, and bodies of hostages, are located inside (or under) the hospital. The footage in the reports aired by CNN show a lot of destruction and damage and are accompanied by “eye-witness” testimony. But the source of the footage is the Hamas run Gaza Ministry of Health. As I have pointed out in the past, ANYTHING whose source is from inside Hamas controlled Gaza should automatically be treated with extreme suspicion. Other recent releases from Hamas include claims of successful ambushes and counter-attacks against IDF units. I know that those are fictitious. I cannot say the same thing about the hospital footage, but there are interesting questions. IDF reports say they are not shooting at medical staff, patients, or others who have been told to evacuate. The footage showing people leaving does not exhibit any signs of panic (which would be the case if they were under sniper fire). The claims of people killed by snipers are verbal (scripted by the Hamas propagandists?) The smoke and inside damage makes it very hard to identify the actual location. Israeli footage does not show smoke or damage hanging from the ceiling. IDF reports speak of weapons and munitions discovered inside, and of a couple of armed terrorists who were killed (after shooting, or aiming their weapons, first according to soldiers who participated.).
Locating graves will be difficult, and anything that is discovered will have to be taken to an Israeli forensic lab for testing. Hamas isn’t expected to cooperate, and if they did, they probably wouldn’t be trusted. If the remains are not Jewish hostages they will be returned to Gaza.
Wetherhorn 