Gaza Hospital Boss Admits He’s a Hamas Commander, Used Medical Facility as Terror Base By Ari Blaff
Ahmed al-Kahlout, the manager of the Kamal Adnan Hospital in northern Gaza, admitted during an interrogation with Israeli security forces that Hamas used the medical facilities to advance its military operations.
“I know 16 employees in the hospital — doctors, nurses, paramedics and clerks — who also have different positions in the Qassam Brigades,” Kahlout told Israel’s Shin Bet in a video clip released on Tuesday afternoon, referring to the military of Hamas. “They hide in hospitals because, for them, a hospital is a safe place.”
Kahlout, whose hospital is located in the Jabaliya neighborhood of northern Gaza, explained to Israeli security officials, “They [Hamas] won’t be targeted when they are inside a hospital.”
“That they will not be harmed when they are inside a hospital. Hamas has offices inside the hospitals. There are places for senior officials, they also brought a kidnapped soldier there. There is a designated place for interrogations, internal security, and special forces. Everyone has private phone lines inside the hospital,” Kahlout added.
The hospital manager also told Israeli officials that he’d been involved in the Palestinian terror group for over a decade and had risen through its ranks over the years. “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,״ Kahlout said, according to an Israeli military press release.
“I once begged them to take a wounded man to the Indonesian hospital, to Shifa [Hospital], for treatment, they refused,” the Hamas official added. “Their mission is more important. The leaders of Hamas are cowards. They left us out in the open while they hide in hideouts. They destroyed us.”
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.
“We urge the UN, World Health Organization, and Red Cross to act immediately,” Ashraf al-Qundra, a ministry spokesperson, said following Kahlout’s arrest.
In November, the IDF released footage reportedly from the al-Shifa Hospital complex, the largest in the Gaza Strip, exposing a tunnel system built by Hamas.
Two separate videos showed a fortified spiral staircase leading down several meters into the ground around the complex. The IDF argues the tunnel runs ten meters beneath the medical facilities, which also features a blast-proof door with a built-in firing hole.
The New York Times later verified that the videos were recorded at al-Shifa Hospital.
“This type of door is used by the Hamas terrorist organization to block Israeli forces from entering the command centers and the underground assets belonging to Hamas,” the Israeli Security Agency said in a statement following the revelation.
The IDF also released CCTV footage shortly after purporting to show Hamas bringing hostages to al-Shifa. One of the hostages is seen being marched through the hospital, with his arms held behind his back as he is pushed forward by a Hamas militant. Another is seen bleeding on a gurney.
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