NYT: Hamas Tunnel Under Gazan Hospital ‘One of the War’s Biggest Rorschach Tests’
10th June 2025
The New York Times confirmed Sunday that Hamas operated a tunnel beneath the European Gaza Hospital weeks after casting doubt on its existence. Instead of condemning Hamas for using a hospital as a terror base, however, the paper framed the tunnel as a matter of clashing narratives.
“What we saw in that dark and narrow tunnel is one of the war’s biggest Rorschach tests,” Times reporter Patrick Kingsley wrote in a Sunday article after touring the site, calling it “the embodiment of a broader narrative battle between Israelis and Palestinians over how the conflict should be portrayed.”
“To Israelis, the location of an underground passageway highlights Hamas’s abuse of civilians,” the article’s subheading reads. “To Palestinians, Israel’s decision to target it highlights Israel’s own disregard for civilian life.”
The Times last month cast doubt on the tunnel’s existence, quoting the hospital’s director as saying such a tunnel was unlikely. Two weeks later, Muhammad Sinwar—the de facto leader of Hamas and younger brother of slain October 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar—was killed inside the tunnel, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
While the left-leaning paper confirmed the tunnel’s existence on Sunday, it cited a hospital spokesman lamenting that “Israel should have found other ways to eliminate any wanted commander.”