Hamas militants admit to hiding in hospitals, using ambulances for terrorist purposes: IDF

Hamas militants captured by Israeli soldiers have admitted during interrogations that they hide inside hospitals and use ambulances for terrorist purposes, according to a recent recording released by the Israel Defense Forces. 

The Hamas militants were captured after the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 massacre against Israel that left at least 1,400 people dead, a majority of them civilians, and resulted in the abduction of 239 people, including Americans. 

In a video released by the IDF and shared on X, an Israeli interrogator is heard asking a Hamas militant what ambulances are used for. The terrorist replied, “Anything important,” such as transporting Hamas commanders.

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The interrogator then asked the man why the terrorist group uses ambulances and not regular vehicles. The terrorist replied, “Jews don’t attack ambulances.” 

The video shared by the IDF also featured a clip from an interrogation with a separate Hamas terrorist who explained the terror group’s strategy of hiding inside hospitals. He pointed to Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza as a place where militants hide in the basement. 

In response to the Israeli interrogator’s question about the identities of the senior Hamas leaders who are hiding in the hospital, the terrorist named Yahya Sinwar, a Hamas leader and the mastermind behind the Oct. 7 attacks against Israel, with the aim of advancing its assault up to the border of the West Bank, according to The Washington Post. 

On Wednesday, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari shared footage on X of an intercepted call between a Gazan citizen and a Hamas terrorist. The IDF spokesperson pointed to the call as proof that Hamas “exploits ambulances, hospitals, clinics, mosques and schools for terrorist purposes.” 

In the recording, the resident is heard asking if he should send the terrorist an ambulance. The terrorist replied that he had ambulances and that he “can go out with whatever ambulance (I want).” The resident told the terrorist that there was an ambulance that could come for him and bring him to the entrance of his house. 

“Brother, there are ambulances that go and come back,” the terrorist said. “I can go with any ambulance.” 

The intercepted phone call and the information gathered from interrogations with Hamas terrorists are not the first time that the Israeli military has raised concerns about the terror group exploiting civilian infrastructure. 

Earlier this month, Hagari shared video footage with international media outlets that showed a Hamas terrorist firing at Israeli forces from within the Sheikh Hamad Hospital, and the footage also showed the terrorist emerging from a tunnel underneath the hospital.

“If it weren’t enough that we exposed a tunnel under the hospital, the terrorists also shot at our soldiers from within the hospital,” Hagari said.

The IDF also revealed Friday that troops from the 933rd Nahal Infantry Brigade captured the Hamas-run Outpost 17 in northern Gaza after a 10-hour firefight. Along with seizing enemy weapons and discovering materials detailing Hamas’ operational plans, the troops uncovered tunnel shafts, one of which was located near a kindergarten. 

IDF soldiers battled Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad above and below ground as part of Israel’s ground operation in Gaza to eradicate Hamas and secure the release of the hostages, an operation that commenced late last month. 

The IDF also shared photos and videos of children’s playgrounds and other residential areas that Hamas used as rocket launching sites. 

In one of the videos shared by the IDF this month, soldiers are seen walking through a building with colorful paintings of children dressed in scout uniforms on the walls. The camera then zoomed in on the rocket launchers inside of the building, which one soldier noted appeared to be aimed north, toward the city of Ashkelon in Israel. 

“This is what we are finding in Gaza,” one of the IDF soldiers in the video said. “A building where children play is a Hamas rocket launching site. You have to see it to believe it.”