UK Reporter Sees Hamas Shooting from
Inside Hospital and UNRWA School
In Gaza, Hamas terrorists have entirely taken over the “Indonesian” Hospital (so named because the government of Indonesia supplied the funds to build it), and a nearby UNRWA school, and they have been firing from inside both at IDF soldiers. Usually Western journalists fail to report on this use by Hamas of buildings emptied of their civilians, but in this case, a Telegraph reporter embedded with the IDF offered a truthful account. More on his report, and why the IDF sometimes has to limit its ruse of airstrikes in response to Hamas gunfire even when no civilians are around, can be found here: “Finally, a reporter actually reports about Hamas firing from hospitals and UNRWA schools,” Elder of Ziyon, November 8, 2023:
On Sunday, the IDF published evidence that Hamas tunnels were built during the construction of the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza.
Indonesia strongly denied the accusation.
The IDF has the video clearly showing the tunnels had been built not afterwards, but at the same time as the Indonesian Hospital was built. The Indonesians of course deny that, but structural engineers are sure that the tunnels were not an afterthought; they were there from the beginning.
In a rare example of real journalism, The Telegraph (paywalled) reports:
Hamas terrorists were making a “last stand” in a hospital in northern Gaza on Tuesday night in a showdown witnessed by a Telegraph reporter.
To make clear that Israel was not attacking a working hospital with patients and medical personnel, it would be best for honest journalists to describe Hamas terrorists as making a “last stand in an empty building in northern Gaza that used to be a hospital.”
Israeli warplanes, tanks and infantry cornered the last remains of a 1,000 strong battalion of the terrorist group’s forces holed up in the Indonesian Hospital and a nearby school…in the northern town of Beit Hanoun.
“They talk the talk, but they don’t walk so good,” said Lieutenant Colonel Blick of the Israeli 551 Reserve Paratroop Battalion, which escorted The Telegraph to the front line on Tuesday.
Pointing to the plumes of dust rising about 2km to the south, Lt Col Blick said fewer than 100 Hamas fighters were taking shelter in the Indonesian Hospital, the last survivors of a thousand-strong unit.
“They fought when we came in but folded after a day. Their command lines were cut. Now, where you can see the dust rising, in the hospital, they are making their last stand,” he said.
One of the soldiers took reporters to see a Hamas rocket launcher, dug into the garden of a house just a few yards from a pool where children would have played. The launcher was so hidden that it would have been close to impossible to spot by drone.
Most agree that the Indonesian Hospital is empty now of patients and is simply being used by Hamas to wage war. Taking it down with an air strike to finish the fighting must surely be tempting, but the IDF knows that would hand its enemy a propaganda coup….
This is the IDF’s dilemma. If it continues to trade fire with Hamas operatives inside the hospital, it is likely to lose some men. It could instead level the building, through airstrikes, killing all of the Hamas combatants. But to the wider world, ready to believe the worst about Israel, that would be reported as “IDF hits Indonesian hospital” without the key detail — that the building was empty at the time, except for Hamas fighters — being provided.
Remember, the Indonesian hospital has no patients, no doctors, no nurses. The only people inside are members of Hamas, firing at the IDF soldiers. Why doesn’t the IDF simply call in an airstrike to flatten the hospital and kill all the Hamas combatants, instead of risking the lives of its soldiers who are now engaged in firefights with the people inside the hospital? It’s because the world would react in fury if the IDF did so, with media screaming about “Israel destroys hospital,” even though the Indonesian Hospital was no longer a hospital, had no medical personnel or patients on site, and was peopled solely with terrorists. That wouldn’t stop Hamas from declaring: “Two doctors and 32 patients, including 13 children, were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the Indonesian Hospital last night.” And the Hamas statement would be taken seriously, and appear in media reports around the world.
Like the Indonesian Hospital that is empty, the UNRWA school — which is also connected to the network of tunnels — no longer has any teachers or students inside; it has been taken over entirely by Hamas. There has already been a fierce battle between the IDF and the Hamas operatives in the school, and some Hamas members are apparently still alive and exchanging gunfire with the Israelis. As with the hospital building, the school building could simply be pulverized by an airstrike. But the IDF knows what the headlines would then read: “Israel bombs school, claims it is Hamas center. Hamas says one teacher, 16 children were killed.” Or something to that same hideous effect. So the IDF will fight on on, without calling for those airstrikes on the empty hospital and school, risking the lives of its soldiers in order to avoid a public relations nightmare.
The IDF shows journalists the tunnels that are built under schools, mosques, hospitals, apartment buildings, which is why the IDF finds it must hit those buildings, after warning their inhabitants to leave them, so that the weight of those buildings causes the tunnels just beneath to collapse. But despite being shown those tunnels, some journalists, determined to hide the truth about Hamas operations, and eager to place the IDF in a bad light, seldom report Israel’s justification for those airstrikes. Elder of Ziyon comments:
This is not just bad journalism but irresponsible journalism. If reporters did their jobs, Israel could flatten the Indonesian Hospital and newspapers would describe how Hamas cynically turned it into a military target. But because the media tries to be even-handed between a terror group and a democracy, soldiers’ lives are endangered by having to exchange fire with terrorists hiding in hospitals and schools.
The only reason Israel bombing the terror stronghold that formerly acted as a hospital would be a “propaganda coup” is because most media aren’t doing their jobs.
If reporters were to properly convey what is going on in Gaza, they would repeatedly describe the size of the tunnel network — 313 miles of tunnels, some dug to a depth of 70 feet, with vast spaces for hiding both weapons and fighters. They would explain that Hamas has chosen hospitals and schools as the ideal covers for tunnels dug underneath, for they are ordinarily filled with vulnerable civilians — patients and medical personnel in the hospitals, children in the schools — whose deaths would particularly tug at the heartstrings of the public.
They would also explain that by dint of constant warnings, the IDF makes sure that civilians stay away from, or leave, buildings about to be targeted — as apparently happened in the case of the UNRWA school and the Indonesian hospital. Only when the IDF is convinced that such buildings have been emptied of civilians will it allow an airstrike to hit them. And even when such buildings contain only Hamas fighters, if the target’s destruction is likely to lead to international condemnation — as would happen with such high-profile buildings as the Indonesian Hospital –the IDF will put airstrikes on hold, and rely instead on rifles, anti-tank missiles, and rocket-propelled grenades to put an end to the Hamas members inside.
The largest Hamas command-and-control center, weapons storehouse, and bunker for combatants is known to be in the nexus of tunnels to be found directly under the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City This is the target the IDF would most like to hit. But how does Israel get the medical personnel and patients to move to other hospitals, so that Israel can call down airstrikes on a building emptied of its civilians, and the tunnels underneath? The 150-bed field hospital the UAE is just now setting up in southern Gaza can take care of one-third of the Al-Shifa patients, but it would require two more field hospitals of similar size to accommodate the rest of Al-Shifa’s patients. The IDF must be thinking very hard as to how to deal with the problem of Shifa Hospital and the tunnels underneath where Hamas combatants are hiding. Having observed from afar how intelligently and creatively the IDF has dealt with the peculiar difficulties of this war, I am confident the Israel Defense Forces will find a way.
‘Palestinian’ victim: ‘Mom, I’m fine,
it’s just for the camera!’
According to a hadith, Muhammad said, “War is deceit.” (Bukhari 4.52.268).
And Islam is always at war! And a godless media is always willing to lie.
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