Gaza hospital chief threatened for urging terrorists to leave medical centre
The head of a hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis is facing threats after publicly condemning Palestinian Islamic Jihad for using the hospital to conduct terror activity.
Gaza’s Shifa Hospital operating without interruption on Oct. 29, 2023. Photo by Majdi Fathi/TPS
Mohammad Sakr, the head of nursing at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis identified revealed he had urged terror groups to leave the hospital to protect it from being targeted or shut down.
“I call on you in the name of God — not to forgive them,” Sakr wrote, saying he received a threatening from Palestinian Islamic Jihad that read, “You’ve crossed the line—be careful. This is your first warning.”
Col. Avichai Adraee, the Israel Defense Force’s Arabic language spokesperson responded with a tweet calling this a clear example of Palestinian terror groups “exploiting” Gaza’s medical facilities.
“A new crime has been added to the record of Palestinian terrorism and its love of exploiting hospitals,” Adraee tweeted. “The Director of Nursing at Nasser Hospital… announced the hospital was reserved for patients only, not for terrorists. The Al-Quds Brigades responded by sending him a direct threat! Heinous, disgusting terrorism.”
In a separate incident, the IDF reported striking a Hamas command centre located inside Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City overnight, saying it was in response to a rocket launched at Kibbutz Re’im in southern Israel during Passover. Medical personnel were warned ahead of time and evacuated. No injuries were reported.
According to the Israeli military, Eighty-five percent of Gaza’s hospitals have been used by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad for terror.
As reported by The Press Service of Israel in 2023, Hamas made extensive use of the Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical centre. Hamas launched rockets from its compound, hid hostages in the bowels of the building, tortured collaborators, and dug tunnel shafts.
Other Palestinians told Israeli interrogators Hamas deeply embedded itself in the Palestinian Red Crescent Society to use hospitals and clinics as a base for attacks.
