Two Hamas documents found by Israeli forces in Gaza indicate that international organizations such as the Red Cross and Doctors without Borders are well aware of the presence of Hamas in the Gaza Strip’s medical facilities despite obfuscating or outright denying it publicly, NGO Monitor revealed on Wednesday.
The internal Hamas memos were among a cache of documents declassified by the Israel Defense Forces. NGO Monitor translated the Arabic-language documents into English and released them to the public.
“While repeatedly echoing Hamas allegations and condemning Israel’s operations to end the exploitation of hospitals for terror, these groups clearly knew that Hamas exploited these facilities and chose to remain silent,” said Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor.
The documents, dated February and March 2020, not only show Hamas’s deliberate strategy of placing its fighters, leaders and terror infrastructure inside hospitals in Gaza, but reveal that NGOs worked right next to them, in at least one case in an adjoining office.
“The [International Committee of the] Red Cross chose a wing in Al-Shifa medical complex that is adjacent to the [Hamas] movement offices,” notes the February 2020 document.
The memo also notes that the French branch of Doctors Without Borders “chose the only room in Abu Yousef El-Najar Hospital that has a (safe) communication landline.”
The Hamas documents explicitly state the terror group’s position that medical facilities are not neutral spaces, but a critical part of its infrastructure.
“Furthermore, these health facilities are a place of gathering for numerous leaders of the [Hamas] movement and the government during times of escalation,” the February memo said.
The memos, which originate with Gaza’s Interior Security Mechanism (ISM), an official body in the Hamas Ministry of Interior and National Security (MoINS), raise concerns about the Gaza Health Ministry authorizing NGO operations in Gaza without first consulting Hamas’s security apparatus.
The February memo, from ISM’s Branch of Foreign Associations, is addressed to Colonel Ayman Rouqa, head of the Division of Foreign Activity, which oversees foreign NGOs and U.N. agencies. The March memo is from an unidentified source to the deputy director of ISM’s Intelligence Affairs Sector (IAS), which manages intelligence and counterintelligence operations.
The documents chiefly focus on Hamas’s worries that foreign NGOs working in the hospitals could provide an opening for Israeli intelligence. They seek to bring the Health Ministry’s NGO-related decisions in line with Hamas’s larger security and intelligence priorities.
The solution was to call for tighter control of foreign medical delegations in Gaza—restricting their movements, pre-approving staff, dictating NGO operations and assigning security escorts.
As a result, NGOs were forced to operate on Hamas’s terms, “making them complicit in a system” that exploits medical centers for terrorist purposes, according to NGO Monitor.
Anne Herzberg, NGO Monitor’s legal adviser, told JNS that it’s beyond belief that the Red Cross and other groups can continue to claim ignorance of Hamas activities in Gaza hospitals.
“The documents show they had to report to Hamas. They had to provide Hamas the names of those working for them. They knew they were being monitored by Hamas,” she told JNS.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Doctors without Borders continue to issue public statements condemning Israel for targeting hospitals, but with no mention of Hamas’s use of those facilities.
JNS reached out to the ICRC and Doctors without Borders for comment.
The ICRC was asked for any statements it had issued about Hamas’s use of medical facilities, and whether it acknowledged that Hamas exploits hospitals. An ICRC spokesman told JNS via email only that “international humanitarian law (IHL) states that all parties to the conflict must respect and protect medical facilities and personnel.”
Asked if it had undertaken an investigation into claims that Hamas is operating from hospitals in Gaza, the organization told JNS it “does not undertake investigations but raises allegations and concerns directly with the relevant parties to conflicts.”
It added that the ICRC “reminds the parties to conflicts of their obligations, in a bilateral and confidential manner.”
According to Herzberg, it is “disingenuous” for the ICRC to claim it raises concerns confidentially as it condemns Israel repeatedly in public statements for targeting hospitals while remaining silent about the reason it does so—Hamas is weaponizing them.
The ICRC acknowledges on its website that medical facilities are only protected under international law so long as they aren’t used for hostile activities.
“Medical establishments and units enjoy protection because of their function of providing care for the wounded and sick,” the ICRC site notes. “When they are used to interfere directly or indirectly in military operations, and thereby cause harm to the enemy, the rationale for their specific protection is removed.”
By using hospitals as gathering points and command centers, Hamas endangers those facilities and puts them at risk, said Herzberg. “They’re turning them into military objectives,” she added.
A spokeswoman for Doctors without Borders, asked by JNS to supply past statements regarding Hamas’s use of such facilities, said she had none, but directed JNS to the group’s website, which denies any knowledge of Hamas activity.
“MSF [Medicins sans frontieres] has no direct information that Hamas fighters are using hospitals in the Gaza Strip for military purposes,” the site says. “If we had been made aware of the presence of Hamas military bases and fighters in the hospitals where we work, we would not have maintained activities there for obvious reasons of responsibility and the safety of our teams.
“It is also important to understand that MSF teams only work or have worked in part of the large hospital complexes such as Al-Shifa and Nasser,” it added.
The Hamas memos specifically mention Al-Shifa and Nasser hospitals.
For Herzberg, worse than the fact that these NGOs maintain silence about Hamas’s operations is that “they’ve been corrupted. They’re pushing disinformation.”
Covering for Hamas only encourages the terror group to continue using hospitals as human shields, she continued. When these NGOs were told they would have to report to Hamas, “they should have been principled and refused to work there anymore,” she added.
Even setting aside that it was obvious for decades that Hamas treats hospitals as part of its terror infrastructure, Herzberg said it became impossible to deny after the closed-caption TV (CCTV) footage emerged in November 2023 showing Hamas ushering hostages through the halls of Al-Shifa hospital.
Last month, former hostage Ilana Gritzewsky recounted to the U.N. Security Council how she was held, along with other hostages, at Nasser hospital.
“They took us through the back entrance and walked us past all the civilians. In the hospital, there was an area that was closed off and used only by Hamas, with an armed guard,” Gritzewsky told the U.N. body. “They locked us in a room, where we met a third hostage.”
Of those groups keeping silent about Hamas’s conduct, the ICRC angers Herzberg the most.
“They claim to uphold international humanitarian law. They’re the ones holding themselves to a certain standard. They’re clearly not living up to it,” she said.
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This article was originally published in then JNS.org
