Hamas Used Gaza’s Shifa Hospital as Terrorist Command Center, U.S. Intel Confirms 

Hamas Used Gaza’s Shifa Hospital as Terrorist Command Center, U.S. Intel Confirms 

After nearly two months of a smear campaign against Israel for taking military action — albeit cautious and limited — against Hamas terrorists operating out of Gaza hospitals, the mainstream media is finally reporting about the misuse of Gaza’s main Shifa Hospital as a terrorist command center.

“Hamas and another Palestinian group fighting Israel used Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza to command forces and hold some hostages,” The New York Times reported Tuesday, citing U.S. intelligence sources.

The Shifa hospital in the heart of Gaza City, with over 500 beds and 1400 employees, was being used by Iran-backed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist groups to direct attacks on Israeli troops conducting ground operations in Gaza. “The complex was used by both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to command forces fighting against Israel, according to the intelligence,” the newspaper added.

In mid-November, the IDF evacuated the hospital and took control of the compound along with its vast subterranean terror complex.

Describing the complicity of mainstream media outlets like itself and globalist institutions like the United Nations (UN) and the World Health Organization (WHO), the NYT wrote:

In the weeks since the operation [conducted by the IDF in mid-November], news organizations have continued to raise questions about Hamas’s presence at the hospital. And health and humanitarian organizations have criticized the Israeli operation. A humanitarian team lead by the World Health Organization, which visited Al-Shifa immediately after Israeli forces stormed the hospital, called it a “death zone.”

While major news outlets like the NYT, CNN, and BBC have been paddling inflated casualty figures fabricated by Hamas’s so-called ‘Health Ministry,’ they have questioned almost every single bit of evidence produced by the Israeli military and the government.

Reuters on Tuesday reported the latest U.S. intelligence assessment confirming Israeli claims:

U.S. spy agencies assess that Islamist group Hamas and another Palestinian group fighting Israel used Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital to command forces and hold some hostages but largely evacuated the complex days before Israeli troops entered it, a U.S. official said on Tuesday, citing declassified U.S. intelligence.

The complex was used by both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to command forces fighting against Israel, the U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

U.S. intelligence agencies have not disclosed the evidence on which they based their assessment. The official said the U.S. had independently confirmed the information.

Israel has also said Al Shifa, which it had occupied earlier in the war in Gaza, had been used by Hamas. Israeli troops entered the hospital in November. (…)

The American government believed that Hamas used the hospital complex and sites beneath it to carry out command and control activities, store some weapons and hold a few hostages, the U.S. official said.

U.S. intelligence agencies obtained information that Hamas fighters had largely evacuated the complex days before Israel’s operation and destroyed documents and electronics as they left, according to the American official.

The U.S. intelligence assessment was reported first by the New York Times. A classified version of the assessment was sent to lawmakers in the U.S. Congress.

Since Israel launched the ground offensive in Gaza on October 27, the IDF has been releasing a flurry of evidence showing Hamas’s use of hospitals as command centers, launch pads, and weapons depots. These assertions have been corroborated by video evidence and confessions made by senior Hamas terror operatives under Israeli interrogation. Shifa and other Gaza hospitals have reportedly been used to hold hostages taken from Israelis during the October 7 terror attacks.

IDF Spokesman presents evidence of Hamas' systematic exploitation of civilian hospitals for terror purposes

'A ground operation revealed a tunnel that was being used for terror purposes at the Qatari hospital… The terrorists also shoot at our soldiers from within the… pic.twitter.com/IZ4wFh6wtq

— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) November 5, 2023

The head of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, Ahmad Kahalot, admitted to Israeli investigators that his hospital was doubling as a terrorist commander center. The head of Shifa Hospital, Abu Salmiya, has also been arrested by the Israeli security service for his role in providing cover to Hamas at his medical facility.

Breaking: Footage of Hamas terrorists opening fire at Israeli forces from the Sheikh Hamed hospital in Gaza.

Hamas continues to intentionally harm civilians in Gaza by exploiting hospitals for terror purposes.

📸@IDFpic.twitter.com/aD3ShJDjb3

— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) November 5, 2023

IDF destroys underground Hamas complex beneath Shifa Hospital

The news comes as the Israeli military completed the demolition of terror tunnels and an underground complex located below the Shifa Hospital.

The IDF says it has completed demolishing a Hamas tunnel network under Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, releasing a new 360-degree video showing the underground passages.

According to the IDF, the tunnel branches under Shifa are around 250 meters in length, and reach several sites… pic.twitter.com/l0XAQ6c1Xf

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) January 3, 2024

The Times of Israel reported Thursday:

The Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday that it had completed demolishing a Hamas tunnel network to Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, while the military continued to focus operations on the enclave’s central and southern areas. (…)  The IDF said hospital buildings above ground were not damaged.

According to the IDF, the tunnel branches under Shifa were around 250 meters in length and reached several sites used by Hamas in the area, describing them as used for terror purposes. (…)

Hamas “systematically operates in the hospitals in the Gaza Strip and in the areas adjacent to them, using the residents as human shields and exploiting the hospital’s infrastructure, including electricity and water,” the IDF said.

Troops also located Hamas weaponry within Shifa, as well as evidence showing the terror group brought hostages to the medical center following the October 7 onslaught, according to the army.

Hospitals must be protected—from Hamas.

The @IDF has dismantled the Shifa Terror Tunnel Complex without damaging the hospital building. The tunnel was 250m-long, leading to major terrorist nodes that leeched off the hospital's electricity and water. #HamasHumanShieldStrategy pic.twitter.com/OhQewy9Cc1

— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) January 3, 2024

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