The IDF has shown the world that Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza was full of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives. It killed 200 of them and captured another 900 people inside the hospital, of whom 500 have been confirmed as members of Hamas and PIJ. It also showed the world the huge armory of weapons that were kept by Hamas and PIJ inside the hospital — mortars, explosive devices, sniper rifles, assault rifles, handguns, and other military equipment, were found hidden inside patient pillows and beds, and in the drop ceilings and walls of the building. These are the same weapons that the IDF has found at Nasser Hospital, near Khan Younis, and at the Al-Ahli and Al-Quds Hospitals.
The IDF has been sharply criticized for attacking hospitals which, the anti-Israel chorus insists, violates “international law.” But the IDF has rightly responded that any civilian institution or building that harbors fighters and weapons loses its protected status and becomes a legitimate target for attack. The IDF has further claimed that it believes that all the hospitals in Gaza, to varying extents, are hideouts for terrorists and their weapons.
Now a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad has confirmed Israel’s suspicions. His claim that the terrorists can be found in all twenty-two of the hospitals in Gaza can be found here: “Palestinian Islamic Jihad Spokesman: All Gaza Hospitals Taken Over by Terrorists,” by Debbie Weiss, Algemeiner, April 9, 2024:
A Palestinian Islamic Jihad spokesman has confessed that terrorists have taken over all of the hospitals in Gaza, using the medical facilities to hide military activities and launch attacks.
In a video released by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Monday evening, Tarek Abu Shaluf also admitted to an Israeli interrogator from military intelligence that the terrorist group had initially lied about the source of a deadly rocket strike on the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital at the beginning of the war, falsely blaming Israel in an attempt to cover up the group’s involvement.
The IDF at the time had released audio recordings in which Hamas officials can be heard admitting that Palestinian Islamic Jihad was responsible for the misfired rocket.
“We fabricated a story that the rocket belonged to the ‘occupation’ [Israel] and that the target was the building” of Al-Ahli hospital, Abu Shaluf said in the newest recording. He added that the terrorist group’s communications department chose to lie in order to “erase” the fact that the rocket had fallen short of its target. He went on to say that they also “relied on the stories in the international press.”…
The PIJ had launched a rocket at Israel. It misfired, and fell short, onto the parking lot next to Al-Ahli Hospital, killing between 10 and 50 people. At once Hamas, supporting PIJ’s false version of events, claimed that an Israeli rocket had deliberately hit the Al-Ahli Hospital, killing 500 people. Much of the world, determined to believe the worst of the Jewish state, accepted this claim. It took a week for both the Israeli and American intelligence services to prove to their own satisfaction that the rocket in question was not Israeli, but belonged to PIJ; that it had hit not the hospital, but rather, the parking lot next door; and finally, there were not “500 civilians” killed, but between 10 and 50, not all of whom were civilians. PIJ could not own up to such a ghastly misfiring, so it did the obvious — it put the blame on the Israelis. Fortunately for Israel, the Americans had their own, independent ways of investigating the incident, and they, too, backed up Israel’s version.
“All of the hospitals,” Abu Shaluf told his interrogator when asked which medical facilities Hamas and Islamic Jihad utilize for their activities. He explained that the groups are able to occupy rooms and wards in every hospital across the coastal enclave, exploiting the 24/7 internet connectivity and electricity to conceal their operations….
This is what the IDF has suspected for some time — that all 22 hospitals in Gaza were used by Hamas and PIJ. But it was good to have on videotape matter-of-fact confirmation of that suspicion from a PIJ spokesman..
Hamas has consistently denied using hospitals and other civilian sites for military activities, despite mounting evidence to the contrary….
Hamas denies. Hamas lies, over and over again. It doesn’t care about how preposterous those lies may appear; its operatives are honor graduates of the Joseph Goebbels School of Propaganda: just lie continuously, brazenly, and the bigger the lie, the better. Despite the mountains of weapons that the IDF found in a dozen hospitals, and the hundreds of Hamas combatants who have been killed fighting inside hospitals — in Al-Shifa alone, 200 were killed and another 500 taken prisoner — Hamas continues “denied using hospitals for military activities.”
So now we have it: confirmation from a PIJ terrorist of what the IDF has long claimed: that all the hospitals in Gaza have been used by Hamas and the PIJ as a military outpost, with fighters, weapons, and protective gear discovered throughout their premises Will the testimony of that PIJ spokesman, Tarek Abu Shaluf, who was taken hostage at the Al-Shifa Hospital near Gaza City, make others more willing to trust the IDF’s version of events? It would be nice to think so.
Tony Rice says
A more devious lying untrustworthy organisation than Hamas is difficult to comprehend. That their religion allows, indeed promotes lying to further it’s aims may well work and be acceptable to them, but to non Muslims, has the opposite effect.
Goofy says
This article makes the point that Hamas and the Gazans are caught in the Islamic tale that the Muslims are superior compared with everyone else, in particular the apes and the pigs, which have no rights to know the truth. As we know the truth is of no consequence to Muslims, who were born to do the will of Allah, the greatest of deceivers!
Given that it is a core tenet of Islam to eradicate Jews (“From the River to the Sea”) and that Islamic eschatology claims that during the last days the trees and the rocks will call out to the Jihadists “There is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him”, what kind of coexistence, peaceful or otherwise do you really expect?
There is no way that Jews can logically survive in a world where genocidal, anti-Semitic Islam is a recognised if not even a respected religion. That is bad enough but we also know that after the Jews come the Christians, the Atheists and basically everyone else. And when the Muslims have run out of Kafirs they most self-righteous Muslims will kill all Muslims who they consider are less devout or honourable than themselves and they will blow up girls schools, kill those who compose or play music etc.
It is not only the Jews who are under the threat of the Muslims, but it is the entire human civilization!
Instead of taking individual Muslims to court (which they do not accept as long as Shari’a is not applied) for individual crimes like cutting off people’s heads in church we need to make the Qur’an itself and all other relevant Islamic literature to court and systematically determine to which extent the commands of Islam are in conflict with the laws of the civilised world, including international conventions on human rights, warfare etc. In addition we need to establish in which manners Islam constitutes blasphemy committed against the Christian faith.
Israel just took out a Hamas leader, who was riding a car together with his grandchildren. Before we start condemning the Israelis for killing little kids we should consider the possibility that this was another event involving Muslim use of human shields!
Israel lives with a massive Islam threat next door, but we have the same problem in London, Paris and Stockholm. We do not have the luxury to neglect this problem any longer.
Take the Qur’an to court, initially under suspicion for hate crimes.
James Lincoln says
In a typical Gaza “hospital”, one is more likely to find an AK-47 than a bottle of Betadine.
OLD GUY says
Muslim terrorist are not just in hospitals. Our police and government investigators should search every Mosque for weapons and bomb making materials here at home also. It appears that these so called religious sites are also training facilities and armories for muslim terrorist
I would start in Dearborn.