Hamas Exploitation of Hospitals for Military-Terrorist Purposes Shifa Hospital as a test case
Shifa Hospital is a government hospital which belongs to the Hamas-controlled ministry of health in the Gaza Strip. From the beginning of Operation Iron Swords, the hospital admitted the largest number of casualties of all the hospitals in the Gaza Strip. It received shipments of equipment and medical aid from the International Red Cross which included medical equipment for its operating and emergency rooms. As revealed by the IDF spokesperson, in addition to functioning as a medical institution, the hospital was clearly exploited by Hamas' military-terrorist wing. The IDF forces entered the hospital and exposed its underground levels, which had tunnels, headquarters, control rooms and stockpiles of weapons. The evidence clearly proves that the hospital was used for extensive terrorist activity, exploiting the fact that IDF forces would not attack a civilian medical facility. Revealing that the hospital was exploited for military-terrorist purposes became a symbol of Hamas's cynical use of the population and civilian facilities for its terrorist needs, including the use of medical facilities. It was not the first time the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, especially Hamas, had been exposed as exploiting hospitals and other medical facilities for military-terrorist purposed. They knew the IDF would not attack hospitals, which provided their military-terrorist facilities with a kind of immunity. For the same reason, they exploit ambulances and vehicles belonging to humanitarian organizations for the transport of terrorist operatives and weapons from place to place. Exploiting civilian facilities for military-terrorist purposes is a Hamas modus operandi, and to that end, they prepared a web of tunnels and stockpiles of weapons inside the hospitals in advance.
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