OPINION:
Hamas is at it again. The genocidal terrorist group continues to use hospitals and other civilian centers to stage and carry out attacks. Hamas can sow death and destruction thanks to media outlets that provide these killers with essential cover. Some reporters even celebrate the group’s crimes.
Hamas’ strategy of using human shields isn’t a secret. Even the United Nations, hardly a pro-Israel source, has quietly admitted as much. A 2015 internal investigation found that U.N. Relief and Works Agency schools were used by Hamas to “hide weapons” and “launch attacks” during the 2014 Israel-Hamas War. During the 2021 war, the group was infamously caught using the building that housed Associated Press offices for operations — a war crime that was obfuscated by news outlets such as The Washington Post.
Last November, the Israeli military published footage showing Hamas using tunnels built into both Sheikh Hamad Hospital and Indonesian Hospital in Gaza City.
By using civilian population centers to plan and launch attacks, Hamas hopes to deter Israeli strikes. And by increasing the risk of civilian deaths, Hamas hopes to turn world opinion against Israel.
In November, the Israel Defense Forces carried out an operation at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, which functioned as a headquarters for Hamas. And many legacy media outlets, including The Washington Post, cast doubt on the IDF’s claims that Hamas was using the hospital for this purpose. Yet evidence that Hamas uses Shifa has long been in the public domain.
In 2014, the Post itself noted that the hospital “has become a de facto headquarters for Hamas leaders, who can be seen in the hallways and offices.”
As far back as 2006, PBS aired a documentary showing “how gunmen roam the hospital, intimidate the staff, and deny them access to protected locations within the building.”
Evidence of the hospital’s dual use was compiled in a 2014 Tablet magazine essay, “Top Secret Hamas Command Bunker in Gaza Revealed: And Why Reporters Won’t Talk About It.”
The IDF spent several days — delays caused by caution on the IDF’s part and gunbattles with Hamas — to take the hospital. Subsequently, weapons and tunnels were found. So was footage showing that hostages taken by Hamas were brought to the hospitals.
Indeed, Hamas itself has admitted that it uses hospitals.
On Dec. 20, the Shin Bet, roughly Israel’s equivalent of the FBI, published footage of an interrogation of Ahmed Kahlot, who was both the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital and, as he disclosed, a “lieutenant colonel” in Hamas. Mr. Kahlot said that one Hamas leader and two senior officials had offices in the hospital, admitting that “they also brought a kidnapped soldier there” and “there is a designated space for interrogations, internal security, and special security.” Hamas even has “private phone lines within the hospital,” he said.
Mr. Kahlot told interrogators that “they hid in hospitals because they believe that hospitals are a safe place” and “they will not be harmed if they are inside a hospital.” Mr. Kahlot told interrogators that 16 members of the hospital staff, including paramedics, nurses and doctors, were also Hamas operatives.
More evidence of Hamas’ use of hospitals has emerged in recent months. Yet much of it has been ignored by major Western news outlets.
Indeed, undeniable evidence emerged after another IDF operation involving Shifa Hospital. A raid last month captured no fewer than 500 members of terrorist groups and killed some 200, including several top commanders. Seth Frantzman, an adjunct fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said that after the raid began, the terrorists retreated to the maternity ward, burn ward and emergency rooms.
Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesperson, called the operation the “largest aggregation of terrorists we have apprehended since the beginning of the war.” Predictably, this was not how the press reported it.
As the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis documented, The Associated Press has been among the worst offenders. Tamar Sternthal, director of CAMERA’s Israel office, noted that the AP’s coverage has “sought to discredit Israeli information on Hamas’ use of the hospital … while completely ignoring independent U.S. intelligence findings which reached the very same conclusion.”
But the AP was far from alone. Instead of acknowledging that the March raid disproved their previous coverage, minimizing Hamas’ use of hospitals, The Washington Post pivoted, filing a March 22 story headlined “Israeli raid on al-Shifa Hospital deepens suffering in Gaza’s north.”
According to the Post, the story isn’t that hundreds of terrorists were found using a hospital — a story that contradicts its own Dec. 1 “analysis.” Rather, the story is Israel’s response. And the message is that the Jewish state, not Hamas, is responsible for the suffering of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip subjected to Hamas rule. That’s pathetic. But it’s not surprising.
One of the reporters responsible for the March 22 story, Hajar Harb, celebrated Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre. An investigation by CAMERA’s Arabic Department found that Ms. Harb, who describes herself as a “collaborating journalist with the Washington Post,” changed her Facebook profile photo to show Hamas terrorists inside any Israeli city. Her comments on the platform are similarly disturbing.
On footage of Yafa Arad, an 85-year-old Israeli citizen, being kidnapped into Gaza, Ms. Harb wrote: “See this place ma’am? Allah willing, you’ll remain inside with us for a while.”
On footage of Shir, Ariel and Kfir Bibas being taken by terrorists into Gaza, Ms. Harb sounds ecstatic: “[this is] your home and your spot, you and your children.” Baby Kfir celebrated his first birthday in captivity. On a picture of Hamas terrorists storming an Israeli home, Ms. Harb wrote: “And this is how we say good morning, seriously.”
On a photograph of Hamas terrorists ins an Israeli city, Ms. Harb exclaimed: “Enjoy your view.” Ms. Harb would go on to write dozens of Post reports after she cheered Hamas’ handiwork.
Helping Hamas hide in hospitals is bad enough, but celebrating the largest slaughter of Jewish civilians is another. Neither are qualities befitting newspapers or journalists.
• Sean Durns is a senior research analyst for the 65,000-member, Boston-based Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis.
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