The Palestinian son of a Hamas co-founder confronted claims that the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabalya in northern Gaza — who admitted that Hamas has used hospitals as military facilities — had been coerced into his statement by Israel.
Ahmed al-Kahlout, the director of the hospital, told Israeli security forces, “I know 16 employees in the hospital — doctors, nurses, paramedics and clerks — who also have different positions in the Qassam Brigades. They hide in hospitals because, for them, a hospital is a safe place.”
“Hamas has offices inside the hospitals,” he continued. “There are places for senior officials; they also brought a kidnapped soldier there. There is a designated place for interrogations, internal security, and special forces. Everyone has private phone lines inside the hospital.”
“I was recruited to Hamas in 2010 with the rank of Brigadier General. There are employees in the hospital who are military operatives of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades – doctors, nurses, paramedics, clerks, and staff members,״ Kahlout said. “I once begged them to take a wounded man to the Indonesian hospital, to Shifa [Hospital], for treatment, they refused. Their mission is more important. The leaders of Hamas are cowards. They left us out in the open while they hide in hideouts. They destroyed us.”
Hamas in their own words:
Ahmad Kahalot—Senior Hamas Member since 2010 and director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabalya in northern Gaza admits that Hamas has used hospitals as military facilities under their control.
Video credit: ISA Spokesperson pic.twitter.com/QGLclR94at
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) December 19, 2023
News Nation’s Chris Cuomo mimicked the claims that al-Kahlout was coerced to Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, saying, “Even though the guy looks okay in the video, he is saying exactly what Israel has been saying; it must be coerced.”
“This guy is deeply involved in the terrorist operation,” Yousef replied. “This is not the first doctor that Hamas hired; in fact, many of Hamas’ leaders are doctors and engineers. Many people think of Hamas as like ISIS, but Hamas does not hire losers; Hamas hires people with status, with education, with power.”
“So this is not the first Hamas doctor out there,” he continued, then offered further information: “What this guy forgot to say is that Hamas actually used the hospital to actually transfer substantial amounts of money from outside, and they use the hospital as a cover so they can pay their employees. He did not say everything because he didn’t know everything about Hamas’ operation. This is just the view from his position but Hamas used the hospital for a lot more than just employing 100 terrorists and having offices at the hospital.”
“90% of Hamas members speak in interrogation without any mental or physical or psychological pressure,” Yousef stated. “They just speak. I know this from personal experience in the interrogation centers and spending 27 months with Hamas operatives … Hamas leaders, once they are arrested and in interrogation, they all vomit their plans, their plots, and their operations, their secrets. It’s not a new thing. Hamas pose as lions on the outside but once they are under interrogation, they became like rats or rabbits.”
“So this is not a new thing; all Hamas leaders confessed about the movement’s infrastructure,” he said. “There are thousands of Hamas operatives, now, as we speak, all of them, giving lots of information and I think this is what will give Israel their leverage for the next phase of this war.”
Potentially a big shift in the reality of what Israel is targeting in Gaza came, when the director of a Gaza hospital, where there were victims of this war (women, children and babies were being treated) says he's been with Hamas since 2010 and he has a high ranking position. He… pic.twitter.com/dUqNWxHJg7
— Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) December 20, 2023