Israel on Sunday stepped up its accusations against Hamas of abuses at Gaza’s largest hospital, saying a captured female soldier had been executed and that two foreign hostages were being held at the site that was the center of its disastrous six-year offensive. long.

Al Shifa Hospital, which once housed tens of thousands of Palestinian war refugees, has been evacuating patients and staff since Israeli troops moved in this week on a so-called mission to root out Hamas hidden sites.

Israel is also searching for about 240 people Hamas abducted from its territory and took to Gaza after the Oct. 7 cross-border attack that sparked the war.

One of them was 19-year-old Israeli army recruit Noah Marciano, whose body was discovered near Shifa last week. Hamas said he was killed in an Israeli airstrike and released a video showing his body unmarked except for a head wound.

The Israeli military said a forensic examination determined he suffered non-life-threatening injuries from the attack.

“According to intelligence – reliable intelligence – Noah was captured by Hamas terrorists within the walls of Shifa Hospital. There she was killed by a Hamas terrorist,” said chief spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.

He did not provide further details.

At his televised press conference, Hagari said Hamas militants had also committed to Sifu Nepalese and Thaiamong the foreign workers captured in the October 7 raid. He did not name the two hostages.

Surveillance video posted by Hagari showed a group of men forcibly taking a man to the hospital, to the surprise of medical staff. In the second video, a wounded man lies on a stretcher. Nearby was another man, dressed in civilian clothes, with a machine gun.

Hamas had no immediate comment on Hagari’s remarks. The Palestinian Islamist group, which rules the Gaza Strip, previously said it had taken several hostages to hospitals for treatment.

Separately on Sunday, the Israeli army released video of what it described as a 55-meter-long tunnel dug by Palestinians 10 meters beneath the Shifa compound.

While Hamas admits it has a network of secret tunnels, bunkers and mines hundreds of kilometers long throughout the Palestinian enclave, it denies they are located in civilian infrastructure such as hospitals.

The video shows a narrow passageway with vaulted concrete ceilings ending in what the military said in a statement was a blast door.

The statement did not indicate what might be behind the door. According to the statement, the tunnel could be accessed through a shaft discovered in a shed at the Shifa complex containing ammunition. The second video shows an open-air hole in the complex.

Munir El-Barsh, director of Gaza’s health ministry, called Israel’s claim about the tunnel “a complete lie.”

“They were in the hospital for eight days (…) and still haven’t found anything,” he told Al Jazeera. (Reuters).