There is still no explanation as to why the occupying army removed a video of X and republished a shorter, edited version the next day.

It has been almost five days since the Israeli army deleted a social media post that claimed Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip was used as a control and command center by Hamas before its occupation.

The Army removed the original post on Wednesday and replaced it with a shorter version posted again with processing the next day. The Israeli military gave no explanation for the deletion of the post.

“We are going to do a one-shot video, a recording, not an edit, of all the evidence that we just found in this Al-Shifa Hospital building,” Army spokesman Jonathan Conricus said at the start of both versions of the video.

However, it is clearly visible that the footage has been edited in the frame, which is six minutes and 26 seconds into the latest and shorter version of the video.

In the video, Conricus walks viewers through what the Israeli military sees as evidence of the presence of Hamas militants in Gaza’s largest health facility, including combat equipment and weapons.

Items shown in the video include plastic bags said to contain what the Army describes as “hospital equipment.”

In this fact check, Al Jazeera’s @KhalidMajzoub takes a look at a video in which an alleged nurse at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza claims that the hospital was controlled by Hamas ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/c0C4l8wcJX

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) November 18, 2023

However, a close analysis of the contents of the plastic bags shows that what the Israeli army describes as “hospital equipment” is actually bandages and ointments.

Their presence at the hospital, the Israeli military spokesman said, falsified Gaza’s urgent need for medical supplies and equipment. He also shows viewers a laptop and some CDs that he claims contain valuable information.

However, in the new version of the video, the same laptop is blurred. In the original video, you could see the screen clearly and recognize the model of the computer: Lenovo ThinkPad L460, a laptop without a CD reader.

Television reports reveal further problems

Television recordings published by BBC and Fox News Israeli army reporters in the Gaza Strip uncover further inconsistencies and document how the scene in the hospital appears to have been changed.

The reporters were escorted into the facility’s MRI room and filmed what they claimed was evidence that Hamas fighters were there.

In their videos, two AK-47 rifles can be seen at the scene – instead of the one AK-47 in the original video shared by the Israeli army.

The BBC’s Own fact-checking analysis also emphasized that their reporter was only allowed to enter the crime scene a few hours after the video was recorded by the Israeli army – as shown by the time on the Israeli army spokesman’s watch.

In a statement reported by Israeli national media, the military denied claims that it had tampered with the crime scene in al-Shifa.

“In certain areas, explosives had to be laid and managed and mines and charges had to be removed. Only then could they be brought back into the same room to be shown to the international media,” it said.

The discrepancies in the videos raise serious questions about alleged changes at the crime scene. It is crucial that these questions are answered as Israel uses such so-called evidence to justify attacks on hospitals in its war on Gaza.

Furthermore, the so-called evidence is still insufficient to confirm the Israeli army’s claim that a Hamas command and control headquarters is located in al-Shifa Hospital.