For weeks Al-Shifa hospital in the northern Gaza Strip has been the focal point of the fight between Israel and the Palestinian militants.
Israeli officials say Hamas has been using the hospital to hide weapons and command centres -- a claim denied by medical staff and the Islamist movement.
AFP was among about two dozen journalists who embedded with Israeli soldiers to see what it calls evidence of the tunnel network underneath Al-Shifa.
Our still, video images and soundbites were submitted to the Israeli military censor for approval.
Electric wiring was visible as reporters climbed down a narrow shaft, which led to a narrow tunnel only a few metres wide.
"It's a very long tunnel," Colonel Elad Tsury, commander of Israel's Seventh Brigade, told reporters.
"The tunnel goes from the city to the hospital."
The soldier led reporters through what looked like a kitchenette with a sink, a toilet and a room with two metal beds and a wall-mounted air conditioner.
"When they are trying to survive, they go down, use hospitals as a human shields and they can stay here for a long time."
The reporters were not taken inside the hospital and allowed to see only a portion of the sprawling complex.
Outside the hospital, the military displayed guns, ammunition and explosives they said were found in the Al-Shifa complex.
The media tour came after Israel and Hamas announced a deal allowing at least 50 hostages and scores of Palestinian prisoners to be freed while offering besieged Gaza residents a four-day truce after weeks of all-out war.
Tsury said the military had discovered near Al-Shifa the body of one of the hostages, 19-year-old soldier Noa Marciano.
As he spoke explosions and gunfire were heard in the background.
Israel says 240 people -- Israelis, dual nationals and foreigners -- were abducted by Hamas gunmen when they launched the deadliest attacks in Israel's 75-year history. At least 1,200 people were killed, mostly civilians, according to the government.
In retaliation, Israel launched a relentless bombing campaign and ground offensive in the Gaza Strip. According to the Hamas-run government in the Palestinian territory, the war has killed more than 14,100 people, thousands of them children.
IDF says it destroyed 400 Hamas tunnels ahead of start of truce deal
Washington DC (UPI) Nov 22, 2023 -Israel said its troops continued to battle Hamas in northern Gaza overnight, uncovering and destroying many more tunnels ahead of a four-day truce agreed to on Wednesday coming into effect.
The latest tunnel breaches bring to approximately 400 the number of shafts the military have exposed and destroyed since the beginning of its ground operation Oct. 27, Israeli Defense Forces said in a news update.
"The Yahalom special forces unit of the Combat Engineering Corps has played a significant role in uncovering and destroying these shafts using various methods," said IDF which did not provide a breakdown of the locations of the tunnel shafts.
IDF has long contended that many of the shafts linking to Hamas' embedded network of tunnels beneath population centers across the Gaza Strip are located within hospitals, schools and homes.
The military also urged civilians in Gaza City, the Old City of Jabalia and Shuja'iya neighborhoods in particular, to evacuate to safety in the south of the strip via a protected corridor by 4 p.m. local time.
"We urge you to evacuate your residential areas immediately in order to preserve your safety, via the Salah al-Din Road until 16:00, to reach the south of Wadi Gaza and the humanitarian zone," IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote on X.
He added that there would also be a "local tactical pause for humanitarian purposes" between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., in the area of the Jourat al-Lot and Batn al-Sameen neighborhoods in Khan Yunis in the south.
"Hamas has lost its control over northern Gaza, and is trying to prevent Gazans from moving southward for their safety," said Adraee who provided a hotline number for residents who find their way blocked to call for assistance.
IDF also announced the death of Cpt. Liron Snir who it said had been killed in combat in northern Gaza, bringing to 69 the number of Israeli military personnel who have died in the fighting.
The 25-year-old from the West Bank settlement of Ofra was a team commander in the Golani Brigade's reconnaissance unit, IDF said.
World leaders welcomed the truce agreement between Israel and Hamas secured after being approved by a significant majority of the Israeli cabinet late Tuesday.
A Hamas official said the truce would take effect at 10 a.m. local on Thursday, according to Times of Israel and an Israeli official also told CNN it would begin at that time.
IDF, however, would not confirm the timing as Spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hect said he could not say when the fighting would pause or how a cease-fire would be implemented as he had not received orders from the government.
"We still haven't got the nitty gritty of this framework," he said.
At least 50 hostages being held by Hamas, including women and children, will freed under the deal in exchange for a four-day pause in Israel's air and ground offensive and the release of 150 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, according to Hamas.
No information has been released regarding which hostages are to be released, but the majority of Palestinians listed as eligible for release are male teenagers aged 16 to 18 with most jailed for throwing stones and "harming regional security".
A lesser number were detained for supporting illegal terror organizations, illegal weapons charges, incitement, and at least two accusations of attempted murder.
Qatar and Egypt, which helped negotiate the agreement, said their hope was that it would lead to a cease-fire and a longer-term solution.
Washington which was also involved in the talks took a more cautious stance.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that while the deal constituted "significant progress," the United States "will not rest as long as Hamas continues to hold hostages in Gaza."
There has been no comment from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has said only that the offensive against Hamas was not complete and would resume when the pause in the fighting ended.
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