Gaza hospital director admits Hamas
used medical complex as operational hub
Ahmed Kahlot says doctors, nurses were
members of al-Qassam Brigades and Islamic Jihad’s Quds Brigades; three soldiers
killed in northern Gaza, IDF kills top Hamas money launderer
By EMANUEL
FABIAN and TOI
STAFFToday, 5:28 pm 28
Director of Gaza's Kamal Adwan
hospital Ahmed Kahlot is seen being interrogated by the Shin Bet in a video
published on Tuesday, December 19, 2023. (Shin Bet)
The director of
Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital in Jabaliya has revealed in a
Shin Bet interrogation that his northern Gaza hospital was turned into a
military facility under Hamas’s control and that at one point, it had housed a
kidnapped soldier.
In footage published on
Tuesday by the Shin Bet and Israel Defense Forces, hospital director Ahmed
Kahlot could be seen telling an Israeli interrogator that Hamas had offices
inside the hospital and used it as a base for operational activity.
According to Kahlot, who
said he has been a lieutenant colonel in Hamas since 2010, some 16 members of
the hospital’s staff — including doctors, nurses and paramedics — were Hamas
operatives serving in the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the terror
organization.
He added that several
members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Brigades were also employed
in the hospital.
On December 12, the
Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said that Israeli forces had entered the Kamal
Adwan hospital, which the IDF later confirmed. Over the course of several
days, troops detained some 90 operatives inside the hospital and seized numerous
weapons.
According to a joint
Shin Bet and IDF statement on the operation, some of those captured at the
hospital had participated in the October 7 massacres in southern Israel, in
which some 1,200 people were killed and around 240 were taken hostage.
Asked about Hamas
operations inside the hospital complex, Kahlot revealed that one Hamas leader
and two senior officials had offices inside the hospital.
“There are places for
senior officials. They also brought a kidnapped soldier there,” he said. “There
is a designated space for interrogations, internal security and special
security. They all have private phone lines within the hospital.”
No further information
about the kidnapped soldier’s identity or when he was brought to the hospital
was provided.
“They hide in hospitals because they believe that hospitals are a safe place,” Kahlot told the Shin Bet interrogator. “They will not be harmed if they are inside a hospital.”
In addition to operating
out of the hospital, Hamas operates its own private ambulances, which are a
different color from those used by medics.
According to Kahlot, the
ambulances used by Hamas aren’t ever volunteered for medical uses.
“Once I begged them to
take a wounded man to the Indonesian Hospital or Shifa Hospital for treatment.
They refused,” he said. “Their mission was more important.”
Asked what he thinks
about Hamas now, after two and a half months of war, Kahlot didn’t spare his
criticism.
“The leaders of Hamas
are cowards,” he said. “They left us in the field while they’re hiding in
concealed places. They destroyed us.”
Israel has long asserted
that Hamas uses hospitals inside Gaza for military purposes, and since the
start of the war triggered by the terror group’s deadly October 7 onslaught,
the IDF has operated in several hospitals in northern Gaza, producing evidence
to back up its claims.
On Tuesday, troops of
the Combat Engineering Corps’ elite Yahalom unit discovered an explosive device
hidden inside a health clinic in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood, the IDF
said.
Also in Shejaiya, the
IDF said troops of the Bislamach Brigade located many weapons belonging to
Hamas operatives.
In another area of Gaza
City, the 179th Brigade located and destroyed a tunnel shaft near the coast.
After the tunnel was exploded, the troops identified a group of Hamas
operatives fleeing to a nearby building, which was later struck by a fighter
jet, according to the IDF.
In southern Gaza, the
IDF said, troops of the 55th Brigade raided Hamas sites in Khan Younis, killing
an operative who fired an RPG at them. A weapons depot was also found by the
soldiers.
The military said that,
meanwhile, the Navy has also continued to carry out strikes in Gaza, including
buildings along the coast used by Hamas operatives and vessels.
On Tuesday, the IDF
announced that three soldiers had been killed in Gaza, raising the number of
troops who have died since the ground operation in Gaza began in late October
to 132.
The three soldiers were
identified by the IDF as Master Sgt. (res.) Daniel Yacov Ben Harosh, 31, of the
551st Brigade’s 6551st Battalion, from the West Bank settlement of Alon; Cpt.
(res.) Rotem Yosef Levy, 24, deputy commander of the Combat Engineering Corps’
Yahalom unit, from Oranit; and Sgt. First Class (res.) Maoz Fenigstein, 25, of
the 551st Brigade’s 7008th Battalion, from Susya.
All were killed in
fighting in the northern part of the Strip.
In addition, the
military said that two soldiers from the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion were
seriously wounded in fighting in southern Gaza.
The IDF said that the 6651st
Battalion had ambushed and killed dozens of Hamas operatives in recent days.
During operational
activities in northern Gaza’s Atatra and Jabaliya, troops of the 6651st
Reconnaissance Battalion located Hamas weapons caches and manufacturing plants,
the IDF said, adding that the troops recovered a large number of firearms,
rockets and explosives.
The troops also raided
nearby homes of Hamas operatives, locating further weapons there, and
intelligence materials, the IDF said. The soldiers also found pictures of
children in Hamas uniform, posing with weapons.
The Hamas-run Gaza
health ministry said on Tuesday that since the start of the war, more than
19,600 people have been killed. The number cannot be independently verified,
however, and the health ministry does not differentiate between civilians and
combatants, some 7,000 of whom are believed to have been killed since the start
of the war.
Palestinian reports on
Tuesday said that an Israeli airstrike on a home in Rafah killed at least 25
people, including women and children, and another strike killed at least three
people, according to Associated Press journalists who saw the bodies arrive at
two local hospitals earlier in the day.
The IDF has not
commented specifically but said one of its strikes on the southern Gaza city
killed a top Hamas money launderer, Subhi Farwanah.
It was not immediately
clear if this was the same strike.
According to the IDF and
Shin Bet, Farwanah and his brother worked to transfer funds, using a
currency exchange store, to Hamas and its military wing over the last few
years.
The money exchangers
received funds from Iran and other countries and laundered them for Hamas while
avoiding international financing systems, according to the Shin Bet.
“Farwanah was one of the
few and prominent money exchangers who was able to transfer to the military
wing of Hamas the amount of money needed for the fighting,” the joint statement
said.
According to the
statement, Farwanah transferred tens of millions of dollars to Hamas over the
last few years, as well as during the ongoing war, “knowing that the funds are
essential to the continued ability of the [military wing of Hamas] to fight.”