We entered Al Shifa hospital through a wall that had previously been collapsed to allow the safe entry of Israeli forces.
The BBC, and another television team, were the first journalists invited by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to see what Israel claims to have found at this site.
Any extra light here is risky, so we make our way through the hospital following the heavily armed troops escorting us, avoiding makeshift tents, rubble and sleeping people.
The doctors at the hospital say that they have been working for days without electricity, food or water and that, as a result, Seriously ill patients, including newborn babies, have died.
Many people displaced by the fighting in Gaza have taken refuge in this hospital complex.
But Israel says Hamas also runs a network of underground tunnels, including beneath Al Shifa hospital.
The masked special forces leading us through the building through rubble and broken glass are a sign of how tense the situation here remains.
Our presence, just one day after Israel took control of the hospital, says a lot about Israel’s motivation to show the world why it decided to come here.
In the well-lit hallways of the MRI unit, Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus shows us three small caches of Kalasnikov assault rifles, ammunition and body armor; He says that in total they have found about 15 firearms, plus some grenades.
Lieutenant Colonel Conricus also shows us some military brochures and a map that he says marks possible routes in and out of the hospital.
According to Conricus, what these findings tell us is that Hamas uses hospitals for military purposes.
“(And) we discovered a lot of computers and other equipment that could really shed light on the current situation, including the hostages,” he says.
Laptops, he says, contain photographs and videos of hostages, taken after his kidnapping in Gaza.
There is also recently released footage shared by Israeli police of their interrogations of Hamas fighters who have been arrested after the October attacks.
The BBC was not shown what was on the laptops.
For Lieutenant Colonel Conricus, the findings also suggest that Hamas was in the hospital “in the last few days.”
“At the end of the day, this is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
“Hamas is not here because they saw we were coming. This is probably what they were forced to leave behind. Our assessment is that there is much more.”
The Israeli army spent weeks fighting to reach the hospital doors. The surrounding streets have seen some of the fiercest fighting in Gaza in recent days.
Our visit was strictly controlled; We had very limited time on the ground and were not able to talk to the doctors or patients there.
Our trip to Gaza, made in a hermetically sealed, armored vehicle, followed the same path as the first land raids that Israel has carried out in Gaza for weeks.
During the trip, the landscape we saw of agricultural land slowly transformed into distorted streets with large pieces of rubble and destroyed buildings.
Just south of Gaza City, we stopped to change vehicles and climbed mounds of large chunks of concrete.
We could see groups of soldiers crouching next to small campfires, cooking an impromptu dinner. “It’s a secret recipe,” said one.
Above them, buildings are collapsed.
On one wall was a Star of David scrawled in red paint. Inside it someone had written “IDF”, and above it, the words: “Never again”.
Following the October 7 attacks, Israel has promised to end years of fighting with Hamas, destroying their military and political power.
That means going to the heart of Gaza City, including inside Al Shifa Hospital.
Israeli forces say they are still searching for tunnels beneath the hospital, which they believe Hamas fighters may have retreated into, perhaps with some of the hostages.
This building has become a central focus of the war in Gazadescribed as a key command center, and even potentially the “beating heart” of Hamas operations.
And in the brutal disinformation war that follows this conflict, This is the moment of truth for Israel.
After nearly 24 hours inside the hospital, Israel says it found weapons and other equipment that could help provide information on both the Hamas fighters and the hostages.
But he has neither of those things in his hands.
We left the hospital and walked down the wide avenue that leads to the Gaza coastal highway.
Gaza City is now ruled by tanks. The ghostly avenues look like an earthquake zone.
It is clear everything that Israel had to do to control these streets.
Remember that you can receive notifications from BBC Mundo. Download the new version of our app and activate them so you don’t miss our best content.
- Do you already know our YouTube channel? Subscribe!