NRO’s Ari Blaff reports on the video released by 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.”
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.