Today, Israeli forces withdrew from the Al Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip concluding their second operation on the facility. The Gaza health ministry claims that hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, failing to distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
The first siege of the hospital began on November 11th, when the Israeli military completely encircled the building, cutting it off from Gaza City. At this time the United States and Israel claimed that the hospital was serving as a Hamas command center.
The Gaza Health Ministry and Al Shifa staff, claimed this was not true according to a November 14th AP report. Ghazi Hamad, senior Hamas official said that these claims were “false and misleading propaganda.”
Skip ahead to the 17th, and outrage strikes again as the IDF launches its second operation at Al Shifa. By March 21st, 650 terror suspects, including 358 confirmed members of either Hamas or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) as well as several “very significant” senior Hamas and PIJ commanders were arrested at Al Shifa.
Last Friday, March 29th, a Hamas commander was killed during a shootout in the maternity ward while attempting to escape to the hospitals courtyard - and then two days later the IDF discovered “assault” and sniper rifles, pistols, mortars and explosive devices hidden in the hospitals, beds, pillows and ceilings.
…So how did all of these guns and bad guys find their way into Al Shifa? After all, it isn’t a terrorist command center right?
Well, back in late November the Israeli government published videos of tunnels beneath the hospitals campus, as well as security camera footage of hostages being inside the building. Both were swept under the rug, with western outlets contesting the claims of tunnels.
Today it seems that Al Shifa goes down as yet another cheap talking point used by anti-Israel pundits. They claim that Israel sieged the hospital, seemingly for no good reason but to terrorize injured people.
