Al-Shifa Hospital's Role as a Hamas Command Centre

"The U.S. Intelligence Community is confident in its judgement on this topic and has independently corroborated information on HAMAS and PIJ's [Palestinian Islamic Jihad] use of the hospital complex for a variety of purposes related to its campaign against Israel."

"[We believe the hospital complex and sites below were used to] house command infrastructure, exercise certain command and control activities, store some weapons, and  hold at least a few [of the Israeli] hostages."

U.S. Intelligence assessment

 

"In the hospital, under his [hospital director] management, there was extensive Hamas terrorist activity."

"Findings of his involvement in terrorist activity will determine whether he will be subject to further ISA [Israel Security Agency; Shin Bet] questioning."

Israel Defense Forces

 

"I can confirm for you that we have information that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad use some hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including Al-Shifa, and tunnels underneath them to conceal and to support their military operations and to hold hostages."

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby

The Al-Shifa Hospital complex was used by both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad forces fighting against Israel, according to new U.S. intelligence.  Credit...Daniel Berehulak/The New York Times

Prior to the IDF forces entering the Al-Shifa hospital, reporters covering the issue were informed by John Kirby speaking for the National Security Council, that they were in possession of indisputable information that the Palestinian terrorist groups make use of the hospitals for their own purposes. Certainly the demonstrated fact that Hamas has over time built networks of tunnels around, in and under a variety of hospitals in the Gaza Strip points to the terrorists' habit of using critical civilian infrastructure for their own militant convenience and purposes. 

If Israel were looking for outside validation that it had the moral duty and obligation to its own to respond to the barbaric attack on its citizens where the most sadistic savagery unimaginable wrought chaos and a bloodbath, then perhaps it might consider that the American support in its dedication to finally vanquishing a constant threat against the security of its citizens and its place in the Middle East has been achieved. 

In the face of global humanitarian groups condemning a necessary military operation to destroy the underground network that served so many maleficent purposes, support from any source can be useful. When Israel raided the Al-Shifa hospital complex in November it knew what was to be found there. It was convinced by valuable humint and evidence that the hospital complex was put to use in directing terrorist forces, to store weapons and a place where Israeli hostages would be kept.

The model that was Al-Shifa hospital was repeated in other hospitals, compatible with the Hamas agenda of placing Palestinians in harm's way, in their use as human shields, while at the same time telling the world that Palestinians are prepared to give their lives for the 'cause' of 'resistance' against 'oppression'. In reality, Palestinians are unwillingly surrendering their lives because Hamas has forced them to become a vast living laboratory of body-counting, the better to claim Israeli 'genocide'.

 

Israel Defense Force releases video of shaft leading to a tunnel that goes under the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza

 

As for Israeli hostages being kept in a number of places, among civilians, and within tunnels, the body of Cpl. Noa Marciano, kidnapped by Hamas, was recovered in a building adjacent to the hospital. Another hostage, Yehudit Weiss too, was discovered dead next to the hospital. The hospital's director, Muhammad Abu Salmiya was arrested on December 23 and taken into custody for questioning. That interrogation revealed that he had full knowledge of the hospital's use by Hamas.

Days before the IDF raided the complex on November 15, Hamas operatives normally in place, evacuated the complex and the tunnels, destroying sensitive documents and electronics, leaving as few incriminating objects as they could manage, behind. American officials had pointed to classified intelligence independent from the Israelis in their possession, that clarified the need for the IDF raid on the hospital complex.

Infamously a central role in the ongoing debate and the IDF's operations in Gaza to destroy the entire network of tunnels, command posts, weapons depots and terrorists themselves have been played out in the hospitals in Gaza; most of which have been proven to be compromised through use by the terrorists as haven, storage unit, and operational fronts. And just as Western legacy media have a puzzling tendency to report as proven and truthful anything that Hamas and its various arms pronounce, belief in the unbiased reports of UN agencies is also questionable.

"In the weeks since the operation, 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 led by the World Health Organization, which visited Al-Shifa immediately after Israel forces stormed the hospital, called it a 'death zone'."

The New York Times

Al-Shifa Hospital Complex, displaced Palestinians taking shelter in its courtyards.  Reuters