NRO’s Ari Blaff reports on the video released by the IDF via its Twitter feed (below). Blaff’s headline tells the story: “Gaza Hospital Boss Admits He’s a Hamas Commander, Used Medical Facility as Terror Base.”
Hamas in their own words:
Ahmad Kahalot—Senior Hamas Member since 2010 and director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabalya in northern Gaza admits that Hamas has used hospitals as military facilities under their control.
Video credit: ISA Spokesperson pic.twitter.com/QGLclR94at
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) December 19, 2023
The IDF/Shin Bet have jointly issued this related press release with quotes from the interrogation of Ahmed al-Kahlout, the manager of northern Gaza’s Kamal Adnan Hospital. Kahlout appears to be a former or current Hamas officer — it’s not clear which — with first-hand knowledge of Hamas’s use of the hospital in his capacity as hospital director:
“I was recruited to Hamas in 2010 with the rank of Brigadier General. There are employees in the hospital who are military operatives of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades – doctors, nurses, paramedics, clerks, and staff members.״
“I know 16 employees in the hospital — doctors, nurses, paramedics and clerks — who also have different positions in the Qassam Brigades. They hide in hospitals because, for them, a hospital is a safe place.”
“They [Hamas] won’t be targeted when they are inside a hospital.”
“There are offices where the Hamas leader and two of the senior officials were. There’s a place where the soldier was in (the kidnapped soldier). There’s a place for the interrogators, internal security, and special security. All of them have private telephone lines inside the hospital.”
Blaff adds this useful morsel: “Kahlout has been quoted extensively across global media outlets, including Reuters, NBC News, and Al Jazeera, in recent weeks as a reliable source opining on the state of Gaza’s medical infrastructure. Following his detainment last week by the Israeli military, the Hamas-run Palestinian Health Ministry demanded Kahlout’s release alongside other health officials.”
The IDF/Shin Bet apprehended Kahlout on December 12. He was interrogated by Shin Bet. A Hamas Health Ministry spokesman has demanded his return.
Apparent supporters of Hamas on Twitter are unhappy about Kahlout’s confession (as I’ll call it). They allege that the confession is a result of torture yada yada. As I have stated previously, however, we have found the Israeli military and intelligence authorities to be a more reliable source of information than Hamas supporters, let alone their tools among mainstream media outlets. What we have here is an illustration of the Hamas way of war.
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