IDF: Gaza hospitals risk losing int’l legal protection because Hamas uses them for terror

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says hospitals in the Gaza Strip risk losing their status as protected under international law due to Hamas’s use of their premises for military activities.

“In recent weeks we have stressed, again and again, that because of Hamas’s use of hospitals for military purposes, [the hospitals] will lose [their] special protection in the international court,” Hagari says in an evening press conference.

“We are forced to operate in a focused and careful manner against Hamas’s terror infrastructure in the hospitals,” he continues.

“We call on the Hamas operatives who are hiding in the hospitals to surrender, so as not to endanger those in the hospitals,” he says.

He says that today, the Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City completed its evacuation. Several days ago, Hamas operatives fired RPGs and opened fire at troops from the hospital.

The IDF has also accused Hamas of maintaining its main command center under Shifa Hospital; believes the terror group held hostages under Rantisi Hospital; says the terror group has a tunnel network under the Indonesian Hospital, and that it opened fire at troops from the Sheikh Hamad Hospital.

“Hamas uses the hospitals, and the patients there, as a human shield for terror. The world must know what it does in the hospitals, and we will continue to expose its crimes,” he says.

He says the IDF’s offer to provide incubators for newborns and other medical supplies for Shifa Hospital, in coordination with international organizations, still stands. “The equipment is arranged and ready for delivery,” Hagari adds.