A number of Hamas operatives who were arrested and detained by
Israel during Operation Protective Edge admitted to the use of civilian
establishments, such as mosques, schools and hospitals, as covers for terrorist
activity, according to a report released on Monday by the Israel Security
Agency (ISA).
The report cites extensive
and detailed testimony from the Hamas members to support Israel’s long
maintained assertion that the group operates behind human shields, which often
accounts for civilian casualties as it exchanges blows with the Jewish state.
The report came as the Hamas
controlled Gaza religious affairs ministry claimed Israeli fire throughout
Monday destroyed four mosques, raising to 71 the alleged total number of
mosques targeted over the past seven weeks.
Detained militants Muhammad
Ala’a and Muwaz Abu Tim told ISA they were recruited for Hamas military
activity at the Alabrar and Khaled Ben Alulid mosques in Khan Yunis and Bani
Suheila, respectively. Another militant, Abdel Rahman Balousha, said the Alsafa
and Alabra mosques in Khan Yunis serve as meeting points for Hamas terrorists.
He added that in the Alabra mosque the assembly point is in an underground
shelter.
Iyad Abu Rida said that the
Hamas-affiliated Jamaat Asnad association is located on the second floor of the
Altikva mosque in Hazara while another Hamas operative said terrorists used the
same mosque to pass along orders regarding where to plant improvised explosive
devices to target Israelis.
Another pair of Hamas
terrorists said armed police activity was carried out adjacent to the Uthman
ibn Ifan and Abdallah ibn Masoud mosques in the Alkheif junction area, the
Hassan Albana and Abu Dir mosques, and the Haroun Alrashid school.
Another detainee, Muhammad
Ramadan, told ISA that in February 2014 he trained as an anti-tank fighter in a
hall located underneath the Alshafi mosque in his hometown of Khan Yunis. He
added that the hall is also used as a training and instruction facility for the
Izzadin Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing.
Another Hamas operative
revealed that Izzadin Al-Qassam Brigade terrorists monitor Israel Defense Force
(IDF) movements from the Abad Alrahman mosque, and said that two home-made
explosive devices were hidden in the Altoheid mosque.
Khan Yunis native Muhammad
Alqadra told ISA that mosques in his hometown were used to conceal war material
such as RPGs, heavy PKC machine guns and AK-47s. Additionally, he confirmed
that local schools and hospitals, including the Nasser and Halal hospitals, are
used as weapon arsenals. It is also well known that senior Hamas leaders and
their armed bodyguards, who usually wear police uniforms, use hospitals as
hideouts, he said.
According to Alqadra, guards
are stationed at the admission department in the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis.
He also believes the Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip, including senior
official Ismail Haniyeh, is hiding in Gaza City’s Shifa hospital in an area
closed off to civilians and guarded by plainclothes armed men.
One operative remembered
delivering food to his brother, who works for a local terrorist organization,
while the latter was hiding in the Nasser hospital.
A different Hamas operative
told ISA he believes terrorists are hiding in the Alnajar hospital. He claimed
that in July 2013 he saw many terrorists in the three-story hospital building,
adding that civilians who needed medical treatment were turned away from the
medical facility. Yet another operative said that since the start of the
current Israel-Gaza conflict, many armed policeman have been blocking off
certain sections of the same hospital and not allowing anyone, including
members of patients’ families, to enter.
The ISA report also included
testimony from Hamas operative Marad Amr who said he saw a Hamas military
vehicle parked outside the European hospital in Khan Yunis.
The report also cited
terrorists admitting to digging terror tunnels and rocket launch sites, and
placing arsenals near kindergartens in the Gaza Strip. Muhammad Abu Daraz, from
Greater Ibsan, said he was stationed in a tunnel that started next to a clinic
adjacent to a residential dwelling. He added that there is a kindergarten in
Hazara, next to a clinic, to where he was ordered to bring prisoners in the
event of a kidnapping.
ISA said information it
gathered from the various Hamas terrorists was passed on to the Israel Defense
Forces, including warnings about launch sites, attack tunnels and
infiltrations, arsenals and booby-trapped access routes.
The report is among the most extensive
yet on Hamas’s endangering of civilians in combat and use of civilian
structures for military purposes.
After journalists began to
leave Gaza a more complete picture began to emerge, with some outlets reporting
on rocket launchers in densely populated civilian areas and the Foreign Press
Association condemning Hamas’s intimidation of foreign journalists.
In conclusion ISA said: “It
is clear from the foregoing that Hamas knowingly and intentionally operates in
and adjacent to civilian areas, including in kindergartens, hospitals and
mosques in order to carry out military activity. Hamas thus endangers the
civilian population even in times of calm given that munitions are liable to go
off and put lives at risk. During fighting, Hamas deliberately operates in
these locales, thus turning the civilian population into human shields on the
assumption that Israel will be blamed for any injury and loss of life.”
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