Information warfare
Weapon discovery staged? Video from Shifa Hospital raises questions
Photo of weapons that soldiers around IDF Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus claim to have made in Shifa Hospital
© Israel Defense Forces
On Wednesday evening, the Israeli army showed for the first time a video from the Shifa Hospital, which had recently been stormed. The images were intended to support the fact that Hamas is using the clinic for military purposes. Now the armed forces are facing allegations of orchestration.
It was just over two days ago when Israeli army forces stormed the Shifa Hospital in Gaza after days of fighting. “A precise and targeted operation against Hamas is being carried out based on intelligence information,” it said in a statement published early Wednesday morning Military statement.
A few hours later, the armed forces presented the first videos and images of the operation. In addition to a drone shot intended to show the nighttime entry into the building, other sequences showed soldiers carrying various relief supplies into the largest clinic in the Gaza Strip. What the world didn’t initially see: pictures from inside the hospital, which not only Israel is convinced that it serves as Hamas’s most important command center, which is largely built underground. The US secret service also claims to have information that the Hamas headquarters is located on the site. The terrorists deny this.
Israel’s army deletes first video from Shifa hospital
On Wednesday evening, Israel’s army followed up with a nearly seven-minute video in which IDF spokesman and Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus presented discoveries he had allegedly made to viewers. The inscription “Prince Nayef Center for Radiodiagnostics and Radiotherapy” is clearly visible in the entrance scenes. The area, built in 2004, is undoubtedly part of the clinic. The video was most likely recorded several hours earlier. As one observer noted, can be seen in a scene on Conricus’ watch 1:18 p.m, which speaks for a shoot early Wednesday afternoon. The delayed broadcast is not unusual. And yet: What was obviously intended to support the clinic’s own accusations of military use turned out to be a boomerang for Israel’s army, at least in one respect.
The video will be shot without cuts and no editing will be done, says Conricus before entering the building. In the corresponding posting on
The screen of a supposedly discovered Hamas laptop is suddenly pixelated, whereas in the first version it was shown unpixelated. In the original, a photo of the Israeli soldier Ori Megidish can be seen on the display, whom Conricus even mentions by name. The army did not explain why the laptop was subsequently made unrecognizable and the passage to Megidish was removed.
The claim that the video was shot without cuts is at least inaccurate. In the video you can clearly see a cut at minute 6:27 when Conricus leaves a previously inspected room.
Second weapon placed specifically for TV visits?
Over the course of the video, Conricus leads the audience through corridors and into various rooms. He doesn’t show tunnel systems or a command center; instead, he mainly presents equipment and weapons – some of which were allegedly found in hiding places. For Conricus it’s just “the tip of the iceberg” of what we still think we can find.
However, one of these weapons finds, which cannot initially be independently verified, undermines the credibility of what is shown. In a room with an MRI machine, Conricus says to the audience: “If you follow me behind the machine, you will see what our troops discovered just a few minutes ago.” The lieutenant colonel shows a bag containing an AK47 assault rifle with ammunition as well as grenades and a uniform, he explains.
The problem: Camera teams from the US broadcaster Fox News and the British BBC were also allowed to inspect the room hours later on Thursday night in the presence of Conricus. Although they shot exactly at the same location as the IDF video, their footage now shows a pair of shoes and other things behind the MRI machine that weren’t there before. Above all: a second weapon.
IDF Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus inspects a bag behind an MRI machine. A magazine and a weapon can be seen
© Israel Defense Forces
The same place in Shifa Hospital. But instead of one weapon, Fox News reporter Trey Yingst finds a second weapon as well as items that were not there in the IDF video
© Screenshot / www.twitter.com/TreyYingst
The distinctive rifle with a short barrel and a green shoulder strap can probably also be seen in a closet in another room in the IDF video. It also appears in a picture of all weapons finds, which, according to the file name (WhatsApp_Image_2023-11-15_at_17.53.35.jpeg), was probably taken on Wednesday afternoon. It can therefore be assumed that the weapon was subsequently placed in the MRI room for the nightly visit of the TV stations. This could also apply to the pair of shoes, as US investigative journalist Joe Galvin noted.
Critics of Israel see themselves confirmed
Above all, critics of the Israeli actions at and in the Shifa Hospital now see confirmation that the IDF is bending its truth to suit its needs. That the photo – although not all parts of the building shown due to a lack of comparison images can be located in the clinic with 100 percent certainty – viewed overall, it appears authentic, but in some cases it is completely lost.
The Israeli army has not yet responded to the allegations. Instead, she announced on Friday that the deployment of special forces on the hospital grounds would continue unchanged. It was said that the findings would now be evaluated by the secret service.
Sources: Israel Defense Forces / X (Twitter) / Telegram