Islamic Jihad terrorists claimed to have been stationed at the hospital for months.
By YONAH JEREMY BOB
MARCH 26, 2024 17:00
Updated: MARCH 26, 2024 18:34
Smoke rises during an Israeli raid at Al Shifa hospital and the area around it, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Gaza City, March 21, 2024.
(photo credit: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas/File Photo)
The IDF’s particular intelligence unit for interrogations, Unit 504, on Tuesday published initial findings and recordings of questioning terrorists, in which they admit to their terror groups abusing Shifa Hospital, by using it as a terror command center.
WATCH: Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives reveal firsthand that “between 600 to 1,000” Hamas operatives are hiding in the Shifa hospital. Hear the disclosed details on the deeply embedded terrorist infrastructure within the hospital for yourselves: pic.twitter.com/Mqa8eKcp65
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) March 26, 2024
The terrorists, some from Hamas and some from Islamic Jihad, admit that there were between 600 to 1,000 of their fighters utilizing Shifa as a center for managing fighting the IDF as well as hiding from IDF patrol sweeps for terrorists.
Islamic Jihad terrorist Nabil Regev Abd Ishtivi said, “The fighters are in every building, spread out in every area” of the sprawling hospital complex.
He also said that he had been at Shifa for three months.
This would mean that around a month or less after the IDF took over and left Shifa the first time in mid-November, it was already back in the hands of terrorists.
Initially, the IDF had said it had planned its second takeover operation against terrorists in Shifa several days before. Still, later IDF sources said that higher levels of the IDF were working on the operation as much as a month before.
This still leaves open the question of whether the IDF only learned of the terrorist re-takeover of Shifa in mid-February or knew earlier but decided to delay acting for months for unknown reasons.
Since mid-February, IDF sources said the operation was delayed to pinpoint the best possible simultaneous attack moment.
Although the IDF had said the Shifa takeover operation was purely a professional military matter, some Hamas officials have said that the operation harmed the ongoing negotiations over a potential hostage exchange and ceasefire deal.
Istivi said that his role with Islamic Jihad was building and developing rockets and that he had carried out this role since around 2012.
Further, he added that Hamas and Islamic Jihad had purposely defused their operations into multiple command locations to reduce the risk of broader harm to their operations in the event that the IDF took out any one location.
Hamas senior operative Bachar Ahmed Bachar Kanita said that he was in command of defending significant portions of Gaza City, including 143 fighters under his command.
Kanita said he was only at Shifa for around 25 days. Weapons that the Israeli army says were found in Al Shifa hospital are lined up on the floor, in Gaza city, Gaza, in this screengrab taken from video released on March 20, 2024. (credit: REUTERS/IDF HANDOUT)
He also said that Islamic Jihad had used the childbirth unit as a mini-headquarters, while Hamas had used the administrative buildings and the specialists unit as a mini-headquarters.
‘No safe place’ for terrorism
According to the IDF, Gazan terrorists have no safe place, so they have chosen Shifa and other hospitals to hide in, in express violation of international law.
Despite these attempts, the IDF has said it will pursue terrorists in every location, including hospitals while trying as hard as possible to avoid harm to civilians and medical staff.
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