"We all know there are bunkers and tunnels because the Israelis built some of them when they were in control of the al Shifa hospital before 2005," he [Sky News military analyst Michael Clarke] said.
Is that confirmed from Israeli sources? What was the purpose of those "bunkers and tunnels" under the hospital if/when Israelis built them?
According to Hebrew wikipedia, on the "Shifa Hospital" page, Israel constructed a concrete underground basement in the al-Shifa hospitol (Google translation):
In the 1980s, Israel renovated and expanded the hospital complex with American assistance; Among other things, the project, which was managed by the coordinator of government operations in the territories, Shmuel Goren, included the construction of an underground concrete floor, a new dialysis wing inaugurated in August 1989[6] and a new six-story wing inaugurated in December 1990.[7] The architects Gershon Tzpoor and the late Benjamin Idelson were hired by a consulting firm to design the Princess Aaliya Hospital in Hebron and the Shifa Hospital in Gaza in the 1980s.
It however remains an enigma why exactly this floor was constructed. Was it for security reasons? It might as well be for architectural reasons, in order to reinforce the whole building, so more floors can be added on top of it, or to make the building earthquake proof etc. (I think most normal hospitals have a concrete basement).
I don't have any information about this specific hospital, but since 1951, it's been part of Israeli law that "all homes, residential buildings and industrial buildings in Israel are required to have bomb shelters." (quote from Wikipedia).
So it is highly likely that the hospital has some kind of underground shelter which was constructed to comply with Israeli law when the area was under Israeli control. I believe such things are also registered with the appropriate government department, so the IDF would know what it originally looked like.
Of course, since Hamas has been in control of the area since 2007 and thus the hospital was no longer subject to Israeli law, it could have been drastically altered, but the original shelter was almost certainly Israeli.
