The head of a hospital in Gaza confessed to being a Hamas general, according to video of an interrogation the Israel Defense Forces released Tuesday, in the latest evidence that the terror group uses medical facilities for military purposes.
In the video, Ahmad Kahalot, the chief of Gaza's Kamal Adwan Hospital, said he has been a member of Hamas since 2010 and reached the rank of "Amid," which is equivalent to the rank of brigadier general. Kahalot also said that 16 doctors, nurses, and other staff in the hospital are members of the Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing. He added that Hamas would hide other "military and civilian officials inside the hospital."
"Because for them, the hospital is a safe place," he said when asked why the officials hid in the facility. "They won't be targeted when they're inside the hospital."
Kahalot went on to say that the hospital became a military post under the control of Hamas and that the terror group had private offices inside it, including for the "Hamas leader" and two other senior officials. He also said Hamas used an ambulance at the hospital that would not carry injured people.
"I saw it come and go without taking anyone injured" Kahalot said. "It didn't assist us with transporting the injured when there were many injured people and families. I begged him to take someone to the Indonesian hospital, take to Shifa, but he would refuse."
Toward the end of the video, Kahalot said the Hamas leaders were "cowards because they left us in the field while they are hiding in secret places."
Israel has long contended and Hamas long denied that the terror group uses hospitals for military purposes. Last month, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the United States had intelligence that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad use hospitals in such a way. Kirby said the two groups operated a "command and control node" inside Al Shifa, Gaza's largest hospital. The IDF later captured the hospital and released a video apparently showing a massive terror tunnel underneath it.