Israeli army releases footage it says shows 'hostages at Gaza hospital'

JERUSALEM: Israel's military released security camera footage Sunday it said showed hostages being brought into Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City after being kidnapped in the October 7 Hamas attacks on southern Israel.

In one of the clips a man is brought in on a gurney by several individuals, at least four of them armed, while in another someone struggles to resist while being forcibly dragged into a building resembing a hospital.

AFP was not immediately able to verify the footage.

"Here you can see Hamas taking a hostage inside ... they're taking him inside the hospital," military spokesman Daniel Hagari told a briefing, adding the male hostages were from Nepal and Thailand.

"We have not yet located both of these hostages," he added. "We do not know where they are."

The footage appears to be time-stamped October 7, 2023, the day Hamas fighters stormed into southern Israel killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping some 240 others, according to Israeli authorities.

"These findings prove that the Hamas terrorist organisation used the Shifa hospital complex on the day of the massacre as terrorist infrastructure," the military and intelligence services said in a statement.

Since October 7 Israel has pounded Gaza relentlessly from the air, land and sea with officials in the Hamas-run territory saying at least 13,000 people have been killed, also mostly civilians. AFP