BBC goes inside Al-Shifa hospital with the Israeli army

Lee Duna@lemmy.nz to World News@lemmy.world – 87 points –
BBC goes inside Al-Shifa hospital with the Israeli army
bbc.com
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This building has become a central focus of Israel's war, described as a key command centre, even potentially the "beating heart" of Hamas operations.

Israeli forces are still searching for the tunnels beneath the hospital that they believe Hamas fighters may have withdrawn to, perhaps with some of the hostages.

The BBC was not shown what was on the laptops.

In the brightly lit corridors of the MRI unit, Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus shows us three small stashes of Kalashnikovs, ammunition and bullet-proof vests - he says they have found around 15 guns in all, along with some grenades.

Lt Col Conricus also shows us some military booklets and pamphlets, and a map that he says is marked with potential entry and exit routes from the hospital.

The report of finding 15 guns is my idea of a small cache than a central military command centre.

And about those tunnels... is the IDF going to find them or are they going to dig them and say they were there?

Yeah, 15 guns in a hospital that holds thousands, in the middle of an active warzone? That's probably the lowest density of guns in the whole of Gaza right now. Hell I'm willing to bet that if you were to search any big hospital on the planet, there's probably 15 guns stored somewhere.

If you went to an American hospital (or a school, even), you'd probably find at least that density.

Not that it matters. But generally speaking, no you would not.

Security guards, the mandatory police officer guy, and the guns that get snuggled in.

Average America isn't your big coastal elite city.

Many schools are gun free zones.

Gun free zones for citizens.

School resource officers, School police, normal police, are all allowed to carry weapons in American School gun-free zones.

If we talk about any public university, the campus police definitely have weapons, and they have backup weapons, and they have a weapon firing range.

These are just people whose job it is to carry weapons, this isn't talking about people who work at the school who get policy exemptions and concealed Carry permits.

For talking about a hospital complex that houses thousands of workers, there is going to be more than 15 guns in the complex

It's not that ubiquitous, and that pithy comment was referring to kalashnikovs, which you will find in none of those places.

Great, just many schools. This, anyway, still only applies to unauthorized guns. Authorized personnel are still allowed guns.

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You'll find more than that at a hospital in the US from the security guards. You probably won't find grenades though.

Interview with someone at a Ukrainian hospital mentioned that one of the first things to do treating people who came from fighting was to remove all the grenades and ammo from their pockets, so that stuff would certainly be expected in any war zone hospital.

That does make sense. Don't want your patient accidentally exploding. That would be bad bedside manner.

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