Gaza hospitals morph into military strongholds, confirms director

The director of a Palestinian hospital in the northern Gaza Strip told Israeli officials that Hamas often turns its medical facilities into terrorist headquarters, verifying charges by the Israeli Defense Forces.

The director, Ahmad Kahalot, was taken into custody on Dec. 12 at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabalya. During questioning, he acknowledged being recruited into Hamas in 2010 with the rank of brigadier general. He said more than a dozen other medical personnel there, including doctors and nurses, are also affiliated with Hamas, Israeli officials said Tuesday on their Telegram social media page.

Mr. Kahalot said Hamas uses hospitals in the Palestinian enclave to hide its fighters against detection by Israel.

“For them, a hospital is a safe place. They won’t be targeted when they are inside a hospital,” he said. “There are offices where the Hamas leader and two of the other senior officials were. There’s a place for the interrogators, internal security and special security. All of them have private telephone lines inside the hospital.”

An Israeli soldier captured during the Oct. 7 rampage where Hamas killed at least 1,200 people was held at the hospital.

Also, IDF soldiers were shuttled around Gaza in a private ambulance that Hamas wouldn’t allow to be used for wounded patients.

“I begged him to take someone to the Indonesian Hospital (or) to Shifa (Hospital), but he refused. His mission is too important,” Mr. Kahalot said. “The leaders of Hamas are cowards. They left us in the field while they hide in secret places. They have destroyed us.”