Netanyahu says efforts to minimise casualties unsuccessful, blames Hamas

Israeli PM says Hamas doing everything’ to stop people from moving to safer places

GAZA/JERUSALEM - Israeli soldiers said on Nov 17 they found a stone and concrete shaft used by Hamas at Gaza's largest hospital, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said efforts to prevent Palestinian civilian casualties were "not successful" because Hamas stopped people from moving to safer places.

"Any civilian death is a tragedy, and we shouldn't have any because we're doing everything we can to get the civilians out of harm's way, while Hamas is doing everything to keep them in harm's way," Mr Netanyahu said in an interview on CBS News on Nov 16.

"So we send leaflets, call them on their cell phones, and we say, 'Leave', and many have left," he said.

The Israeli army released a video on Nov 17 it said showed a tunnel entrance at an outdoor area inside the Al-Shifa Hospital complex.

The video showed a deep hole in the ground, littered with and surrounded by concrete and wood rubble and sand.

The army said its troops also found a vehicle in the hospital containing a large number of weapons.

Israel believes a vast underground Hamas command headquarters was operating in tunnels beneath the hospital.

Israel also said the body of an Israeli woman, one of around 240 hostages taken by Hamas gunmen when they stormed into southern Israel on Oct 7, was recovered inside a building near the hospital.

Military equipment, including Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, was also found in the building, it said.

Human Rights Watch cautioned that hospitals had special protections under international humanitarian law.

"Hospitals only lose those protections if it can be shown that harmful acts have been carried out from the premises," the watchdog's United Nations director Louis Charbonneau told Reuters.