Now we know: Israel was right about how Hamas operates - editorial

For years Israel has said that Hamas conducts its ongoing campaign of terrorism against Israel from within civilian sites in Gaza: homes, businesses, schools, refugee facilities… and hospitals.

And for years it had always been dismissed by the international community as paranoia or disinformation, or met with shrugs from those who agreed but had no idea what to do about it.

The horrific October 7 massacre by Hamas that forced Israel to declare war against the terrorist government of Gaza was launched with the declaration that Israel, once and for all, was going to do something about it.

The evidence that Israel had been correct all along about Hamas’s nefarious mode of operation began to pile up soon after the IDF began its offensive.

Early last week, IDF Spokesman R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari revealed an underground Hamas command center under Gaza’s Rantisi Hospital that contained not only suicide vests, rocket-propelled grenades, and a variety of weapons, but also signs, such as baby bottles, that Hamas had held Israeli hostages there.

Hagari said there was both evidence and independent intelligence information that Hamas terrorists had returned directly to the hospital after committing the atrocities of October 7.

He also noted that an IDF robot found additional terror tunnels, which were powered by electricity being siphoned off from the hospital for use by the terrorists underground.

That prompted US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to tell CNN, “You can see even from open source reporting that Hamas does use hospitals, along with a lot of other civilian facilities, for command-and-control, for storing weapons, for housing its fighters. Without getting into this specific hospital or that specific claim, this is Hamas’ track record, both historically and in this conflict.”

We saw the evidence ourselves

Later in the week, the IDF took control of Shifa Hospital, long asserted to be the location of a Hamas headquarters. On Wednesday, the IDF brought The Jerusalem Post and other selected media outlets to view Hamas’s terror infrastructure, including its several-hundred-meter-long tunnel network, up close.

The Post’s Yonah Jeremy Bob reported on his eyewitness visit that next to the Qatar facility within the Shifa complex was a vast amount not only of Hamas guns and grenades – which the IDF found hidden throughout the hospital – but also rocket-propelled grenade launchers, large and small advanced drones for delivering explosives, and a variety of sophisticated intelligence platforms.

The vastness of the tunnels themselves, illustrated by the variety of sophisticated rooms and the blast door the IDF had displayed earlier last week, was testimony to how important this location was to Hamas.

Adding to that irrefutable evidence that Shifa was being used as a terror base, the IDF last week also released information and video footage showing that Hamas brought some of the hostages it kidnapped in Israel to Shifa.

The footage shows Hamas terrorists inside the hospital on the morning of October 7 forcibly transporting a Nepalese and a Thai civilian, both kidnapped from Israeli territory.

In a statement on Thursday, the IDF said that Hamas “used the hospital as a refuge for its terrorist forces and even brought Israeli hostages there who were kidnapped during the day of slaughter. A pathology report confirmed that soldier Noa Marciano was murdered on the grounds of Shifa Hospital.”

The IDF and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) announced on Thursday that they had arrested Dr. Muhammad Abu Salamiyah, the director of Shifa. According to a statement, he was being interrogated by the Shin Bet after significant testimony and video evidence that Shifa had been used as a command center for Hamas during his tenure.

There were reports on Thursday night that Hamas was demanding that the IDF withdraw from Shifa as part of the hostage deal, a demand that Israel rightly rejected.

The longer Israel stays in Gaza, the more it is discovering about Hamas’s web of evil and its cynical use of civilians, especially the infirm, to provide a cover for their murderous actions.

The world should be coming together to back Israel’s actions and encourage it to continue its efforts to uproot the terror that has held Gaza captive for close to two decades.