Ahmad Kahalot, the Director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabalya, in the northern Gaza Strip, has admitted that Hamas has turned hospitals into military facilities under their control.
Kahalot confessed, ‘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 who are doctors, nurses, paramedics, clerks, and other staff members.’
Kahalot was apprehended on December 12 at the Kamal Adwan Hospital by the IDF and ISA.
During the ISA interrogation, Ahmad Kahalot described how Hamas uses hospitals for military purposes, including hiding its operatives, carrying out military activity, moving around Hamas members, and even bringing a captured soldier to the hospital.
During his interrogation, Kahalot also said, ‘They hide in hospitals because for them, a hospital is a safe place. They would not be targeted when they are inside a hospital.’
‘I know 16 employees in the hospital – doctors, nurses, paramedics, and clerks, who also have different positions in al-Qassam.’, added Kahalot.
‘There are offices where the Hamas leader and two of the senior officials were. There is a place where the soldier was in (the kidnapped soldier). There is a place for the interrogators, internal security, and special security. All of them have private telephone lines inside the hospital.’, he further revealed.
Kahalot stated, ‘Hamas has a private ambulance, even its colour and the way it is painted are different, and it does not have a license plate. They used it to transport the soldier [kidnapped] and transport bodies. It did not assist us with transporting the injured.’
‘I begged them to take someone to the Indonesian Hospital, take to Shifa hospital, but they would refuse. Their mission is more important.’, he said.
Kahalot remarked, ‘The leaders of Hamas are cowards. They left us in the field while they hide in secret places. They have destroyed us.’
