Israeli intelligence shows Hamas holding hostages in Gaza’s new hospital as UN health agency criticized for inaction

TEL AVIV, Israel – With the first three Israeli hostages freed in a hostage ceasefire deal, Fox News Digital has exclusively learned that several terrorists captured by Israeli forces last month have admitted to being held by Israeli prisoners at different times at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) recently completed a major operation on the hospital, arresting around 240 terrorists. The hospital’s director, Hussam Abu Safiya, the Israelis claim, gathered intelligence showing that he not only allowed Hamas to infiltrate the hospital, but actively collaborated with the terrorist group.

Another captured terrorist, Anas Muhammad Faiz al-Sharif, who worked at the hospital as a cleaning supervisor and joined the Nukhba force of Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades in 2021, told Israeli investigators that the facility in the northern Gaza Strip was considered “a safe haven for them because [Israeli] the military cannot target it directly.”

He revealed that the terrorists were distributing grenades and mortars inside the hospital, along with equipment to ambush IDF soldiers and tanks.

UN ACCUSED OF REDUCING HAMAS TERRORISTS’ USE OF HOSPITALS IN GAZA AS NEW REPORT OVERLOOKS IMPORTANT DETAILS

Fox News Digital asked a spokesman for the World Health Organization (WHO) whether, based on new allegations by the IDF about the hostage-taking at Adwan Hospital, he would condemn Hamas’ use of hospitals for military purposes.

In a statement, the spokesman said: “International humanitarian law is very clear. Health workers and health facilities are prohibited. They must not be attacked. They must not be used for military purposes. They must be protected at all times. The point is to protect civilians as well as protect the health systems and infrastructure that communities depend on for life care and continuity of services.

“Failure to protect and respect health care is devastating twice. First, in the initial damage, and then again over the months or years it takes to rebuild health systems.”

The statement concluded without condemning or singling out Hamas. “The protection of health care also includes the prohibition of combatants using health facilities for military purposes. IHL is also clear that even if health facilities are used for military purposes, there are strict conditions that apply to taking action against them, including the duty to warn and wait after warning, and even then disproportionate attacks are strictly prohibited.”

Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former official on Trump’s National Security Council, asserted: “Several international organizations operating in Gaza probably had direct knowledge of Hamas using hospitals as terrorist headquarters and only publicly protested against of Israel’s attempts to purge terrorists, UNRWA, the World Health Organization – all were collaborators.

Goldberg offered advice for President-elect Trump UN Ambassador, Elise Stefanik, which goes before the Senate on Tuesday. “Stefanik would have every right to launch investigations against each of those agencies – demanding documents and interviews with staff. And if they don’t comply, they can face the consequences.”

One of Trump’s first acts on Monday was to withdraw the US from the WHO.

During the IDF’s months-long operation in northern Gaza, more than 700 terrorists were detained, including Hamas commanders, some of whom participated in the massacre in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. More than a dozen captured were involved in the kidnapping or holding of Israeli hostages in Gaza.

During the operation, the IDF located and destroyed thousands of weapons, including RPGs hidden in the hospital itself. The goal of the campaign was to completely defeat Hamas’s Northern Brigade and eliminate the presence of that terrorist group among the civilian population. IDF soldiers carried out raids ranging from a few hours to a full day. During the longer periods, they entered the hospital and searched for weapons and terrorists.

Former Shin Beta Gonen agent Ben Itzhak, who was a handler for ex-Hamas informant Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of the Hamas founder, told Fox News Digital that, “Using visual intelligence, it’s easy to see when Hamas brings weapons and ammunition into hospitals… and even with one human source, you can get information about what’s going on inside, from a signal point of view, the terrorists use phones and walkie-talkies, which can be intercepted.”

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION IS SILENT ON HAMAS USING GAZA HOSPITAL AS TERRORIST HEADQUARTERS

There was almost no fighting inside the hospital, from which some 950 people were eventually evacuated, until the latest IDF attack. Since then, the Israeli military has facilitated and secured the transfer of the hospital’s operations to a nearby Indonesian hospital, at the request of the Palestinians.

Even as the United Nations and the international community condemned Jerusalem for its anti-terror campaign, Kamal Adwan, a former Palestinian Authority official, told Fox News Digital that Hamas’ use of hospitals was “immoral” and known to endanger patients and health workers.

Adnan al-Damiri recently went viral on social media after Israel-based Palestinian Media Watch flagged his Facebook post as showing that Hamas had summoned a reporter from Gaza for questioning at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Strip.

“I wrote this post to show the Palestinians that Hamas is doing everything against the people of Gaza, including the hospitals. Hamas claims that its fight against [Israeli] occupation, but the fact is that they are using our people,” al-Damiri said. He noted that the document posted on social media was sent to him by a friend of Gaza who was summoned for questioning.

“I know it’s a real document. I’m not afraid of Hamas,” he added.

ISRAEL-HAMAS Cease-Fire Inching Closer Amid Concerns of Re-Arming of Gaza Terrorist Group

In December 2023. Ahmed Kahloutthe then director of the hospital, Kamal Adwan, told his people Israeli interrogators that he and other staff were Hamas operatives. Kahlout described how Hamas used ambulances to hide operatives, transport terrorist squads and deliver a kidnapped IDF soldier.

Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’ political office in Gaza, told Fox News Digital that his “resistance movement understands very well the importance of respecting international humanitarian law and its obligations, and very well understands the needs of our people for civil services and the importance of protecting them.

“I can say with confidence that Hamas has not used any hospital as a military base or shelter for fighters,” he continued. “Regarding all the aggressions against hospitals in the Gaza Strip, in no case has Israel been able to prove or provide serious or neutral evidence for its claims,” ​​he said.

“We call for the immediate release of Dr. Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, who was kidnapped by Israeli forces, along with dozens of other medics. Israel is fully responsible for their lives. Dr. Safiya is not a Hamas member,” added Naim.

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A month after the Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023, the IDF has already begun releasing evidence of Hamas’ use of hospitals, specifically for terrorist purposes. In one recording from November 2023, a Gaza health official can be heard confirming that Hamas has stored more than half a million liters (over 132,000 gallons) of fuel under Shifa Hospitalthe largest medical center on the Strip.

Hamas is accused of systematically turning Shifa into a major command center and even storing weapons in the MRI building. On November 19, 2023, the IDF released surveillance footage of armed terrorists bringing hostages to Shifa. Last year, the IDF discovered the remains of two Israeli hostages, Noah Marciano and Yehudit Weiss, near Shifa.