Video from Gaza's Indonesian Hospital shared as “heavy fighting with Hamas” inside al-Shifa

By: Ishita Goel
November 21 2023

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Social media posts claim that this video shows heavy fighting at the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza. (Source: Facebook/X/Modified by Logically Facts)

Amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, hospitals and medical centers have become a point of focus. On November 17, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted that only 10 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are still functional, with just 1,400 hospital beds available due to damage sustained in airstrikes or fuel shortages.

Ghebreyesus called for an end to the attacks on healthcare institutions and said that the WHO had verified at least 152 attacks on healthcare centers in Gaza, 170 in the West Bank, and 33 in Israel.

The al-Shifa hospital, the largest in Gaza, made headlines after Israeli forces raided it, claiming that Hamas fighters were hiding in tunnels located below the hospital. Thousands of civilians are reportedly trapped inside the al-Shifa complex amid an ongoing Israeli raid. Israel, however, stated that it has not directly targeted the hospital but that there have been clashes around them.

What is the claim?

A viral clip on social media, which shows a chaotic scene inside a building followed by a blast outside, claims to depict an incident at the al-Shifa hospital. The clip was shared on X and Facebook with a caption claiming that it shows heavy fighting inside the al-Shifa Hospital complex. Archived versions of the posts can be found here, here, here, here, and here.

Screenshots of the viral posts on X. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

What are the facts?

The viral clip carries the logo of the U.K.-based news website Middle East Eye. Taking a cue from this, we found an extended version of the clip on their X account posted on November 10, 2023, with the caption, "Panic ensued inside the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, North of the Gaza Strip, as the surrounding areas of the hospital were subjected to intense Israeli bombardment." We were able to match the viral clip to the video in Middle East Eye X’s post from the 0:18 mark. 

Similarly, Palestinian state-run news agency WAFA posted a video on Facebook on November 9, which carried parts of the viral clip. We could match the first few seconds of the video to the viral clip. WAFA captioned the video in Arabic, a translation of which reads, "Panic in the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, north of the Gaza Strip, during occupation raids that targeted its surroundings."

Screenshots of the video on WAFA. (Source: Website/Modified by Logically Facts)

AFP posted a video from the attack on November 9, with the headline: "Strike hits area near the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza's Beit Lahia." We could compare and match the AFP video to the viral clip from the 0:24 mark, where it shows the blast. 

A screenshot of the video published by AFP on YouTube. (Source: AFP/Modified by Logically Facts)

Logically Facts could not independently verify whether the video shows the existence of Hamas fighters in the hospital, as claimed on social media. However, the above sources indicate that the clip is from the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza's largest refugee camp, Jabalia, and not the al-Shifa Hospital, located in Gaza City's Rimal neighborhood.

Google Maps shows the minimum distance between the two hospitals is around 9 km. This indicates that the attack shown in the viral clip from the 0:24 mark is not in the vicinity of the al-Shifa hospital.

Further, the viral clip shows people inside the hospital in panic amid chaos caused by blasts nearby, not “heavy fighting,” as claimed in the viral posts.

Attack on Indonesian Hospital

On November 9, Israel reportedly bombed the streets near Beit Lahia in Gaza, where the Indonesian Hospital is located. Al Jazeera reported on November 16 that the hospital had gone 'completely out of service' due to a lack of supplies and an overwhelming number of patients. 

France 24 stated in a report that on November 5, the Israeli military had claimed that the hospital was being used to hide an underground Hamas command and control center.

The verdict

A video recorded inside the Indonesian Hospital in north Gaza is being shared as combat fighting inside the al-Shifa Hospital complex during an Israeli raid. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.