We Were the Lucky Ones
9 min read
Hamas’ headquarters sit below Al-Shifa Hospital which is now the site of bitter fighting.
Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City is currently the focal point of Israel’s war with Hamas. Both Israeli and American intelligence agencies agree that Hamas’ headquarters sit underneath the hospital, yet these rock-solid claims are met with skepticism in much of the world.
“Hamas denies” that their headquarters are the hospital, claims The New York Times. The BBC said claims that Hamas is occupying al-Shifa Hospital is “theatrical farce.” World leaders and commentators are accusing Israel of looking for an excuse to massacre civilians.
Be informed. Here are five facts about al-Shifa to help make sense of the claims, smears, and outright lies about the battle there.
Al-Shifa Hospital - the name means “healing” in Arabic - was founded in 1946 by British forces who ruled what was then Mandatory Palestine. It’s located in the western part of Gaza City, which is in the northern part of Gaza. The hospital operated under British leadership until 1948, when Egypt conquered Gaza and the al-Shifa passed into Egyptian control.
Israel captured Gaza during the 1967 Six Day War. In the 1980s the Israeli Department of Public Works embarked on a large-scale plan to enlarge and modernize al-Shifa Hospital. Israeli architects Gershon Zippor and the late Benjamin Idelson were tapped to redesign the hospital. Their innovative designs inadvertently helped set the stage for al-Shifa’s role as a terrorist headquarters today.
Gershon Zippor designed al-Shifa to be a modern four-story medical complex. In an innovative move, he included a complex set of below-ground floors, helping the hospital maximize its footprint. Al-Shifa is a large, sprawling medical center, made even larger by the extensive network of basement rooms that lie below ground. Zippor foresaw expanding the hospital again in 2000, but by then, Gaza had become a hostile semi self-governing territory implacably opposed to any further cooperation with Israel.
Today, al-Shifa Hospital is Gaza’s largest, with 1,400 beds and 4,000 employees.
Al-Shifa Hospital has long been the scene of violence, even as it’s treated generations of patients. During the Six-Day War, it treated wounded Egyptian soldiers. Egypt’s final surrender to Israel occurred in the hospital.
After the hospital came under Israeli control, Israel expanded the hospital but soon ran into difficulties: in 1969, al-Shifa’s Internal Medicine Director Dr. Riyad Zanon (later Minister of Health for the Palestinian Authority) left suddenly after his involvement in terrorist organizations came to light. Three years later, at least one terrorist found refuge in al-Shifa’s nurses quarters. In 1987 al-Shifa became a center of the First Intifada. In 1994, control of the Gaza region - including al-Shifa Hospital - passed to the Palestinian Authority. In 2005, Israel withdrew from all of Gaza; Hamas soon won local government elections in Gaza and the West Bank and took control of Gaza, including al-Shifa Hospital.
The entire functioning hospital had become a human shield for Hamas, preventing any military actions against the buildings.
Hamas began establishing their headquarters in the subterranean areas of al-Shifa Hospital soon after coming to power. In 2008, Israel announced that its intelligence agencies had established al-Shifa as a center of Hamas’ command and control operations. In essence, the entire functioning hospital had become a human shield for Hamas, preventing any military actions against the buildings.
In 2008 The New York Times “reported that Hamas terrorists were going through the wards, killing individuals the group believed were collaborating with Israel.” That same year, the Palestinian Authority (which governs the West Bank) accused Hamas of using al-Shifa Hospital as a prison and torture site, and stealing medical supplies and other materials from the hospital.
The Washington Post reported in 2014, during Operation Protective Edge, that Hamas was once more using the hospital as a base: Al-Shifa was “a de facto headquarters for Hamas Leaders, who can be seen in the hallways and offices.” It later emerged that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh hid in al-Shifa during military operations.
In 2014, after years of rumors, Amnesty International issued a damning report detailing Hamas’ use of al-Shifa Hospital as a torture center. Those who oppose Hamas are abducted by masked Hamas operatives and taken to al-Shifa Hospital for brutal treatment and murder.
“Hamas forces used the abandoned areas of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, including the outpatients’ clinic area, to detain, interrogate, torture and otherwise ill-treat suspects, even as other parts of the hospital continued to function as a medical centre,” Amnesty International reported. In one typical case, Amnesty International documented the torture and murder of a 56-year-old father of 11 named Sabir al-Zain in al-Shifa Hospital in 2014. (Note: the following paragraph contains graphic descriptions of torture.)
Sabir al-Zain’s family received a phone call telling them that his body was at the morgue of al-Shifa hospital and they could collect it from there. One of the dead man’s sons told Amnesty International: My father had been tortured beyond belief. It was horrible. His arms were both broken. They had burnt him on a stove. His body was broken. I inspected his body myself. I was the only one capable of seeing the sight of his body. I was the only one that went in and saw the body. There was a paper printed with all the names [of the dead], except for my father’s name, which was handwritten with a dry ballpoint pen at the end like an afterthought…
Israeli intelligence estimates that 5,000-7,000 Gazans are seeking shelter in al-Shifa Hospital right now, while Hamas operates its headquarters from the complex. Each person is a human shield for Hamas.
Al-Shifa Hospital is running out of fuel, but Hamas has a stockpile of 200,000 gallons of diesel which it is using to launch rockets into Israel and to run the vast network of generators that supplies ventilation and electricity to its 500 km underground tunnel system. The source of all this diesel? Hamas stole it from Gaza’s hospitals - including al-Shifa - and other civilian sites.
Al-Shifa Hospital isn’t the only Gaza hospital that Hamas is using as military sites: Qatari Sheikh Hamad Hospital houses troops in underground bunkers who’ve fired on Israeli troops; and the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza houses underground tunnels and rocket launchers on its property.
Yet al-Shifa’s terror network is the most extensive, with several miles of underground tunnels, massive stores of fuel and other supplies, and a huge contingent of heavily armed fighters hiding out in the hospital. Hamas troops have been documented disguising themselves as patients in order to leave and enter the hospital in ambulances.
Hamas troops based in al-Shifa have been battling Israeli soldiers for two weeks. On November 14, Israel’s military issued a statement to al-Shifa’s Hamas fighters: “We call upon all Hamas terrorists present in the hospital to surrender.” Israel gave Hamas 12 hours to comply before Israeli soldiers entered the hospital. Hamas ignored Israel’s ultimatum and in the early hours of November 15, Israeli forces entered al-Shifa Hospital.
Israel’s military confirmed that it was fighting Hamas operatives inside the hospital itself. Today they have entered the hospital in what the IDF describes as a “precise and targeted operation” that is still underway. The IDF says there has been no “friction” between soldiers and patients and medical staff during the ongoing operation. Weapons and Hamas assets have been found.
Rejecting Fuel:
On November 13, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed that his government offered to supply al-Shifa Hospital with fuel to keep it running, but hospital authorities rejected this offer. The New York Times confirmed this, quoting Dr. Ashraf al-Qudra, Hamas’ head of its health ministry explaining that “Taking this fuel would give Israel credit for allowing fuel into Gaza.” Prime Minister Netanyahu cautioned that after Hamas rejected this offer, “every dead baby is a tragedy” at Al-Shifa Hospital whose death is squarely due to Hamas, which “prevented the hospital from receiving the fuel.”
Rejecting Neonatal Incubators:
As battles rage in and around the hospital, Israel is ramping up its offers of aid. On November 12, Israeli soldiers left 300 liters of fuel at the entrance to al-Shifa, and publicized an evacuation route for people inside to escape. The following day, Israel began moving incubators for newborns from Tel Hashomer Hospital in the Israeli city of Ramat Gan into Gaza in order to help move premature babies out of al-Shifa Hospital. The hospital has rejected Israel’s offers of help, but last night incubators for newborns, baby food, and medical supplies were brought by IDF tanks from Israel.
Accompanying Israel’s soldiers are “medical teams and Arabic speakers, who have undergone specified training to prepare for this complex and sensitive environment, with the intent that no harm is caused to the civilians being used by Hamas as human shields,” Israel’s military reported.
What You Can Do
As Israeli soldiers battle Hamas forces inside al-Shifa Hospital, press coverage and public statements are becoming overwrought, with some people lobbing false accusations of genocide, massacres, and other incendiary claims against Israel. It’s up to each one of us to fight incorrect statements with facts.
Stand up for the truth. Hamas is operating out of al-Shifa Hospital and has been doing so for years. Speak out about this fact. Point out that every tragic death in al-Shifa Hospital is a result of Hamas’ actions. May we all merit to see a speedy end to the suffering in Gaza and in Israel, and an end to Hamas’ homicidal war against Jews and the Jewish state, and their own people.
Watch IDF Spokesperson RAdm. Daniel Hagari walk through one of Hamas' subterranean terrorist tunnels—only to exit in Gaza's Rantisi hospital on the other side.
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Let us remember that the experiments performed by the Nazis, took place in the concentration camp "hospitals".
We make it clear: We have nothing against Germans or Arabs per se', but we wish they would realize the same. Let us indeed have a cease-fire, and have respect and business etc. between nationalities. But until then, how can various elements of the world shout at Israel to make a cease-fire, without saying anything to Hamas?!?!
Rabbi Mendel Scheerson was quite right about giving up both the Land of Israel and jewish settements for Peace and the consequences...see article Israel Three Mistakes in Israel 365 News 15 November 2023
🤔 l am from Kenya
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It's prudent to listen to both sides in any argument so that you can make an informed conclusion.
This article highlights facts that are shocking about the horrendous acts of the Hamas leadership to both it's people and that of its neighbor Israel. May the Almighty give Israelites wisdom and cunning to eliminate this deadly threat. Amen.
Thank you for this concise article.
And the world would still deny that Hamas is a murderous, base inhuman organisation? These are evil terrorists who have no respect for any human life. May they be destroyed. Am Yisrael Chai🙏🏼🇮🇱❤️
I believe him. However, detractors will claim it is all staged and it's hard to prove otherwise.
The world will only hear what they want and see what they need to back up lies against Israel. It’s already happened. The slaughter of 1300 and kidnapping of 240 innocents hv been forgotten & the loud voice of Hamas showing Palestinians, so heart wrenching, are working to their benefit while leaders are billionaires based in Qatar-who’ve stolen most aid from them and use as propaganda. There’s so much antisemitism on globe it’s an easy belief. Despicable