Health minister defends medical care for terrorists, saying some later assisted with hostage rescue and recovery missions

Health Minister Uriel Buso defends the provision of medical care to captured Gazan terrorists, saying that some have assisted IDF troops on the ground during missions to bring back hostages.

“At the end of the day, the system has to treat everyone who comes under its auspices. A doctor that has been in the health system for 30 years explained to me that terrorists whose condition had stabilized were brought in for questioning, and [with that information] we knew how to save lives,” Buso tells the Yedioth Ahronoth Health Conference.

“Some of those terrorists treated in the system entered with [troops] into Gaza, into tunnels,” in the search for hostages, he says.

He adds, “We take them for treatment in order to stabilize them, not to give them a massage.”

Earlier in the year, the Shin Bet published an image of an operation to recover the bodies of five slain hostages from the Gaza Strip, showing a detained Palestinian aiding members of the security agency to locate the tunnel where the remains were held.

Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.