Is al-Shifa hospital a Hamas HQ? – not looking like it at the moment
JVL Introduction
Julian Borger assesses the available evidence and, while we can’t yet be sure, the Israeli claim that al Shifa hospital was a Hamas military base so far lacks any foundation.
As for there being tunnels under the hospital complex, we know that that is true since Israel built such tunnels there during the period when it directly occupied Gaza.
Israel looks increasingly to be in serious breach of international law with regard to its raids on and invasion of the hospital.
Borger’s analysis is followed by a Guardian/AFP explainer: “Can hospitals be military targets? What international law says.”
This article was originally published by the Guardian on Fri 17 Nov 2023. Read the original here.
IDF evidence so far falls well short of al-Shifa hospital being Hamas HQ
Footage to date fails to prove Gaza complex was nerve centre for attacks on Israel, as military has claimed
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All of this is very fine but the only problem is that it takes Israel’s claims at all seriously. Imagine Russia targeted Ukrainian hospitals on the grounds that the UAF operated from there just imagine the howl that our media would set up.
In fact in Mariupul such a scenario did occur. The Azov Brigade had occupied a hospital and emptied it but that didn’t stop western media attacks.
The attack on Al Shifa has to be seen in the context of Israel’s attack on ALL medical facilities in Gaza city, the attacks on schools as happened today in Jabalia refugee camp, the destruction of homes and Israel’s declaration that it wants Palestinians to leave northern Gaza.
Obviously if hospitals refuse to evacuate their patients then this aim is stymied and so everything needs to be judge in that context. Nothing more. Of course the BBC will treat every Israeli claim seriously and equally obviously the United States will provide its own doctored intelligence.
As Skwawkbox showed https://skwawkbox.org/2023/11/17/idfs-accidental-unblurred-video-shows-laptop-is-their-own/ the ‘Hamas’ laptop that Israel displayed just happened to have a standard ID connector and a Hebrew keyboard.
Clever people these Hamas operatives!
I am reminded of the detailed plans published by US intelligence of the vast network of caves and tunnels in the Tora Bora mountains in Afghanistan from which Osama bin Laden was planning world conquest.
I have worked on a number of hospitals over the years, all of them had basements and tunnels for cables, pipework, maintenance and access. Just where do you keep 240 hostages and their captors hidden for 5 weeks? under 24/7 surveillance? there are many things here that are not adding up, in fact it stinks to hell of a big scam.