IDF Finds Hamas ‘Operational Command Center,’ Weapons in Shifa Hospital

JERUSALEM, Israel — The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Wednesday that it had found a Hamas “operational command center” in the Shifa Hospital in Gaza, along with weapons and combat equipment, proving beyond doubt that Hamas uses the hospital “for terrorist purposes.”

The IDF released a video, and photographs:

It also released a statement:

IDF troops are continuing the precise and targeted operation against Hamas in the Shifa Hospital complex, in which the troops are conducting searches for Hamas terrorist infrastructure and assets.

As the soldiers entered the hospital complex, they engaged with a number of terrorists and killed them. Following this, during searches in one of the departments of the hospital, the troops located a room with technological assets, along with military and combat equipment used by the Hamas terrorist organization.

In another department in the hospital, the soldiers located an operational command center and technological assets belonging to Hamas, indicating that the terrorist organization uses the hospital for terrorist purposes.

The technological assets and extensive intelligence information located was transferred for full review by the relevant authorities.

The IDF is continuing to operate in the hospital complex, while extracting intelligence information and preventing harm to the medical teams and civilians sheltering there.

IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told the Israeli public Thursday evening that Shifa Hospital was also an important symbol: Hamas never thought the IDF would dare pursue them there. The fact that Israel did so sent a clear message to Hamas of Israeli resolve to destroy the terrorist organization.

Fellow spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus (res.) added that what the IDF had found at the hospital was the “tip of the iceberg” in terms of Hamas’s illegal use of hospitals for military purposes.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.