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Israel’s latest evidence is the most convincing yet of Hamas military activity at al Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest. 

Thus far, it falls short of proving there was a substantial secret subterranean command and control base below the medical complex.

What it does show is the presence of men with guns inside al Shifa, something doctors and officials there have repeatedly denied any knowledge of since this war began.

Israel-Gaza latest: Tanks ‘200 metres from hospital’, doctor says

The IDF has released video footage of what it claims is a secret tunnel.

It comprises a vertical shaft, sunk near the edge of the hospital compound, connecting with a tunnel heading towards the main hospital buildings, that ends with a blast proof door with a firing hole in it.

At the outset of the war, the IDF produced an illustration of what it called a multi-story terror underground complex below the hospital.

It believes it has discovered part of it, although last night an IDF spokesman said that complex may only be one storey, not four.

The IDF also showed footage of a pick-up truck it found inside the hospital compound that it says was loaded with weapons and munitions.

And it presented CCTV footage from the night of 7 October from inside the hospital.

One clip shows men, at least one of them armed, hustling what it says is a hostage by force through the hospital’s main entrance lobby.

Another shows an injured man that the Israelis claim is a hostage on a hospital stretcher, being wheeled through the hospital under armed guard.

It’s not possible to independently verify from the footage whether or not the wounded man is a hostage.

Israel is so confident both are hostages it has identified them as a Nepali national and Thai national.

Hamas has responded to the video, saying “this confirms that the Ministry of Health hospitals provide medical services to everyone who deserves them, regardless of their gender and race”.

In a statement, Hamas condemned what it called the “false news of the occupation army and the allegations that will soon come out about equipment and weapons that they planted with their own hands”.

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Israelis say they have concrete evidence their soldier Noa Marciano was murdered inside the hospital having been taken hostage on 7 October.

It is not clear how they established that fact from the pathologist’s investigation into her death.

The Israelis have now emptied the hospital of most staff and patients.

They have a freer rein now to search to prove the existence of the command and control base they say lurks below al Shifa.

The father of a nine-year-old girl kidnapped by Hamas has said Israel should “give them what they want” to secure the release of his daughter.

Emily Hand, who is Irish-Israeli, is among 240 hostages who were abducted by Hamas gunmen 45 days ago.

But despite reports negotiators are nearing a deal to release some of the captives, Emily’s father, Thomas Hand, is doubtful.

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“Until I have notification that she has been released, I won’t believe anything,” he told Sky News.

“There have been so many different reports that turned out to be not true. So no, I can’t keep going into hope and to a high, and then crash down. It’s just too hard.”

If an agreement is reached it could see the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israel – but that doesn’t bother him.

Speaking after a press conference at the Israeli embassy in London, Mr Hand said: “Give [Hamas] what they want. I don’t care if they give 100 terrorists for her return or each person.

“I don’t care how many, just get my daughter back.”

Emily was having a sleepover at a friend’s house when she was abducted from Be’eri, a kibbutz in southern Israel.

Initially, Mr Thomas was told his daughter was among the dead, only to learn weeks later that she may be alive.

The mental torture he has endured has taken a very visible toll – with shaking hands and tear-stained eyes.

He’s lost two stone in weight since the 7 October attacks.

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Fighting back emotion, he said he tries not to picture his daughter’s situation because it’s “too painful”.

“If I did that, I would go into a very dark place.

“You say you put things in boxes but in my head that would be a coffin. So now I put her in a bubble and I keep her at the back of my head.

“I don’t go there very often because I can’t, I would imagine the worst.”

But last Friday, the despair was impossible to escape.

It was Emily’s 9th birthday, which was marked by her image being projected onto a giant billboard in Times Square in New York to highlight her plight.

“It was the darkest day. Looking at the billboard, that was very hard,” Mr Thomas said.

Last year she had a circus-themed party but this year, in Hamas’s “dark tunnels”, he believes she would have had no idea of the date.

“She is a beautiful, sweet, innocent kid,” he says.

“But she’s also a very determined little girl which I hope will get her out of there.”

Yemen’s Houthis rebels have released a video showing armed men seizing a cargo ship in the southern Red Sea.

The video from Yemeni Military Media shows at least seven masked men, carrying what appears to be AK-47s, drop from a helicopter and land on the top deck of the ship.

Israel-Gaza live updates

The video purportedly shows the rebels successfully seizing control of the vessel, and appear to have raised both the Yemeni and Palestinian flags on board.

The footage was released by the movement’s TV channel Al Masirah on Monday.

The ship was hijacked on Sunday by the Iran-backed group, who said the ship was linked to Israel.

Israel claimed that the seized ship was instead British-owned and Japanese-operated.

Moscow has put a Ukrainian singer who won the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest on its wanted list, according to reports in Russia.

Susana Jamaladinova, who performs under the stage name Jamala, was charged under a law introduced in 2022 which bans spreading so-called fake information about the Russian military and the ongoing fighting in Ukraine, according to the Russian independent news site Mediazona.

A listing in a Russian interior ministry database says she is being sought for violating a criminal law, Russian state news agencies have reported.

Follow latest: Russian police scramble to break up ‘first’ war protest

Jamaladinova, who is of Crimean Tatar descent, won Eurovision with her song 1944.

The title refers to the year the Soviet Union deported nearly 200,000 Crimean Tatars from Crimea.

Her winning performance came almost exactly two years after Russia annexed Crimea as political turmoil gripped Ukraine in 2014.

Most other countries regard the annexation as illegitimate.

Russia protested against 1944 being allowed in the competition, saying it violated rules against political speech in Eurovision.

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However, the song made no specific criticism of Russia or the Soviet Union, although it drew such implications, opening with the lyrics: “When strangers are coming, they come to your house, they kill you all and say ‘We’re not guilty.’”

Ms Jamaladinova has appeared on the wanted list as Russia continues its war on Ukraine – with fears the capital Kyiv will come under winter bombardment after a series of drone attacks on the city.

According to OVD-Info, a prominent rights group that monitors political arrests and provides legal aid, a total of 19,834 Russians have been arrested between February 24, when the war began, and late October 2023 for speaking out against or demonstrating against the war.

Nearly 750 people have faced criminal charges for their anti-war stances, and more than 8,100 faced petty charges of discrediting the army, punishable by a fine or a short stint in jail.

Earlier this month the wives of deployed Russian soldiers conducted what was probably the first public street protest in Moscow against the invasion of Ukraine, the Ministry of Defence has said.

Russian police reportedly broke up the Teatralnaya Square protest in minutes.

A first group of prematurely-born babies evacuated from Gaza’s largest hospital has arrived in Egypt for treatment.

The 28 infants were transported from the Emirati hospital in southern Gaza having been removed from the besieged al Shifa hospital, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent and Egyptian media.

Egyptian TV footage showed medics lifting babies from inside an ambulance and placing them in mobile incubators, which were then wheeled towards other ambulances.

Israel-Gaza latest: Tanks ‘200 metres from hospital’

Health officials initially said a total of 31 premature babies had been safely moved to the facility, but the World Health Organisation (WHO) said three babies still remain at the Emirati hospital.

The babies now being treated in Egypt have “serious infections”, according to the WHO.

Eight infants have died since doctors at al Shifa raised international concern this month about 39 premature babies at risk from a lack of clean water and medicines, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Israel has been criticised for the number of civilian deaths reported in Gaza, with the ministry claiming more than 13,000 Palestinians have been killed.

The Israeli military has come under particular scrutiny because of the impact on the territory’s hospitals.

Reports of fighting around another facility in northern Gaza on Monday have raised fears another evacuation will have to take place.

A shell struck the second floor of the Indonesian Hospital, where health officials said 700 patients along with staff were under Israeli fire, according to the Hamas-led health ministry.

The ministry claims at least 12 Palestinians were killed and dozens were wounded by firing into the complex, which was encircled by Israeli tanks.

The WHO’s director-general said he is “appalled” by the reported attack on the Indonesian Hospital.

“Health workers and civilians should never have to be exposed to such horror, and especially while inside a hospital,” Tedros Ghebreyesus said on social media platform X.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Marwan Abdallah, a medical worker at the facility, told the AP news agency Israeli tanks were operating less than 200m from the hospital, and Israeli snipers could be seen on roofs nearby.

As he spoke over the phone, the sound of gunfire could be heard in the background.

Mr Abdallah said the hospital – among those forced to cease operations due to the fuel shortage – received dozens of dead and wounded after airstrikes and shelling overnight.

He said medical staff and displaced people fear Israel will besiege the hospital and force its evacuation.

Read more:
Israel presents most convincing evidence yet of Hamas activity at al Shifa
Israel has questions to answer after worrying Gaza hospital report

Nahed Abu Taaema, director of Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, told Reuters they had information that “tanks were besieging the Indonesian Hospital” but that “communications there are almost cut”.

Human Rights Watch warned hospitals have special protections under the laws of war and only lose that status “if it can be shown that harmful acts have been carried out from the premises”.

Israel claims Hamas uses civilians as human shields and operated a major command hub beneath al Shifa. Around 1,200 people were killed in the group’s 7 October attack, Israel says, with 242 taken back to Gaza as hostages.

Critics say Israel’s offensive amounts to collective punishment of the territory’s 2.3 million Palestinians.