BBC Admits Hamas Used Shifa Hospital As An Operations Base

The BBC and other MSM outlets have been horrible on their reporting of many topics during this newer war between Islamic-Nazis and Israel. Here is the BBC [finally] admitting that there was a Hamas command center underneath the Shifa Hospital – as Israel originally reported by the IDF.

BBC Finally Admits Hamas Used People in Shifa Hospital as Human Shields

The NEW YORK SUN has an excellent article detailing some of the past claims which are ignored presently:

As Evidence Mounts of Hamas Using Shifa Hospital as a Military Base, Human Rights Groups Turn Sullenly Silent  

…..A Dutch journalist who reported from Gaza and a British doctor who worked at Al Shifa hospital have both corroborated IDF claims. The doctor told a reporter from France 24 news that there was a section of the hospital leading to the basement that he was instructed not to go near or he’d “be in danger of being shot.”

The doctor added that “there were dodgy non-medical characters going in and out all the time,” and that discussion of this was made in “hushed tones about which Hamas was discussed. You know, people were genuinely fearful.”

In 2014, the Washington Post also reported that Al Shifa hospital had become “a de facto headquarters for Hamas leaders, who can be seen in the hallways and offices.”

“This was not a secret. This was an open secret,” a human rights advocate and executive director of UN Watch, Hillel Neuer, tells the Sun. “Certainly all the international organizations that have a constant presence on the ground knew about it.”  

Organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the World Health Organization, and committees within the United Nations, though, are not convinced — or at least won’t say so publicly now. This matters because, while Israel can win this war militarily, the war for international public support is a major challenge, and Hamas knows how to fight this battle. This is evident in protests on college campuses and in the streets across the United States and in European capitals.

It’s also evident in statements from these groups. “Amnesty International has so far not seen any credible evidence to support Israel’s claim that al-Shifa is housing a military command center — and indeed Israel has repeatedly failed to produce any evidence to substantiate this claim,” the executive director of Amnesty International USA, Paul O’Brien, tells the Sun in a statement.

“In their stated intent to use all means to destroy Hamas, Israeli forces have shown a shocking disregard for civilian lives,” Mr. O’Brien says. “These unlawful attacks, including indiscriminate attacks that caused mass civilian casualties, must be investigated as war crimes.”

This contrasts sharply with Amnesty International reports released in 2007 and 2015, in which the organization describes Hamas using Al Shifa hospital for interrogations, torture, and launching attacks. The harsh condemnation of Israel also contrasts to the language Mr. O’Brien uses to condemn Hamas’s terrorist attacks on October 7.

“The abduction of civilians and hostage-taking and deliberate attacks on civilians are prohibited by international law and can constitute war crimes,” Mr. O’Brien says.

“Can constitute war crimes” doesn’t have the force of Israel “must be investigated for war crimes.” Amnesty International’s X feed displays the same imbalance: for every 10 posts on Israel’s “chilling indifference to the catastrophic toll on civilians,” there is maybe one post about the hostages Hamas is still holding.

Human Rights Watch is also not ready to say whether Hamas used Al Shifa hospital as an operations base. This contrasts to 2007, when Human Rights Watch released a report that details Hamas’s use of hospitals in its battle with Fatah.

“Human Rights Watch takes seriously allegations by Israeli authorities that armed groups are operating inside or below hospitals. We are not, however, in a position to corroborate these claims presently,” the Israel and Palestine director of the Middle East division of Human Rights Watch, Omar Shakir, tells the Sun.

“If accurate, the use of medical facilities by Palestinian armed groups for military operations is alarming and violates the laws of war,” Mr. Shakir says. Yet he adds, “Attacks on hospitals being used to commit ‘acts harmful to the enemy’ are still unlawful if indiscriminate or disproportionate.”

The United Nations declined to comment about Hamas’s use of Al Shifa hospital but directed the Sun to a World Health Organization press conference held Friday. When asked at this press conference whether Hamas used Al Shifa as a base, the executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, Michael Ryan, said that his team’s focus was solely on doctors and evacuating patients.…..

(Read It All)

Other noteworthy articles are below:

Videos: Inside The Hamas Shifa Hospital Underground Command Center

  • Behind the hatch door that was breached, war rooms, an air-conditioned living room and hiding place, as well as toilets and a kitchen for extended stays were discovered. [….]the images suggest that the labyrinthine tunnels were used not just for transporting materials or people, but as something of an extended-stay base. The Israel Defense Forces referred to it as “Hamas’ underground city.”…. (LEGAL INSURRECTION)

Media Minimize Evidence of Hamas Activity in Gaza’s Shifa Hospital

  • [by] minimizing the evidence by suggesting that what Israel has exposed is not enough or fake, while relying on the denials of a deceitful terror organization, is nothing less than a complete ethical and journalistic collapse.” (HONEST REPORTING)

BBC Says Israel Targeted Hospital Staff, Forced To Apologize (Again)

  • On Wednesday [15th of November, 2023], the globally influential BBC was forced to apologize yet again for an anti-Israel smear from one of its anchors. This time, the BBC accused Israel of intentionally targeting Al-Shifa Hospital staff and Arab speakers during its operations in Gaza, which was exactly the opposite of what the cited Reuters report said. (NEWSBUSTERS)

Beirut Explosion (Angles and Latest News Report)

Some multiple angles first:

Latest News Report (Not IDF or terror):

Israel Destroyed Russian Shipment of Anti-Ship Missiles to Syria (Eschatology Watch)

IDF Dolphin-Class Submarine

The Tanin will reach Israeli shores during 2013 after concluding a series of tests and inspections. It is considered to be one of the world’s most advanced submarines and is the IDF’s most expensive purchase. The Dolphin-class submarine is a versatile tool that can adjust itself to a variety of tasks.

The Minister of Defense, Lieutenant General (res.) Ehud Barak, congratulated the IDF and Ministry of Defense personnel involved in the purchase: “the submarine will amplify the capabilities of the IDF and the State of Israel’s strength. The Navy has undergone strategic changes over the past few years that place it at the forefront of the battle over the safety of Israel, as the long arm of the IDF. The agreement reflects the strong relations with Germany and the German government’s commitment to Israeli security.”

Breitbart has this story about the Israeli preemptive strike:

An Israeli submarine was responsible for a July 5 attack on Russian missiles that had been delivered to Syria, the London Sunday Times reports. Israel had warned that such shipments would be legitimate targets.

The P-800 anti-ship “Yakhont” missiles had been on shore in the Syrian port city of Latakia when they were destroyed in an attack that Syrian authorities said could not have come from the Free Syrian Army. The attack by an Israeli Dolphin-class, German-made submarine was coordinated with the U.S., the report says.

Israel has also warned previously that it would not allow Syria to maintain Russian anti-aircraft S-300 missiles. Russia’s official position is that such missiles do not alter the regional balance of power.

P-800 Yakhont Cruise Missiles

The British Sunday Times newspaper reports that 50 Russian-made missiles
sent earlier this year to aid President Bashar Assad’s army were hit.

DebkaFile expands a bit on the geo-political reverberations this may create:

US to media: Israel struck Latakia arsenal last week. Will Putin and Assad make good on threats of reprisal?

…debkafile’s military sources report that three strategic arsenals were targeted: One consisted of weapons mostly delivered by Russian air freights in the last two months for the Syrian-Hizballah offensive to recapture Aleppo. A second contained the supersonic Yakhont anti-ship missiles (NATO codenamed SS-N-26) plus their radar systems; and the third, the Syrian army’s strategic reserve of missiles and ammunition, stored there for an emergency, such a possible forced Syrian army retreat to the Alawite region – or even Lebanon.

It is important to note that, although Moscow was perfectly aware that the advanced Russian weapons supplied to Syria were put in the hands of the Lebanese Hizballah, the consignments were not only not suspended but expanded. Moscow is therefore directly arming HIzballah with advanced weapons. During the attack, neither Syrian radar nor that of the Russian warships cruising off the Syria coast registered any aircraft or missiles heading for the Latakia depot.

They were therefore unable to positively identify the source of the explosions.

Israel and the IDF held their silence – hoping that matters would stay that way, unlike their air strike of May 5 which destroyed Iranian arms shipments for Hizballah stored in the Damascus area, when American sources made haste to finger Israel. This time, too, after a few days’ pause, Washington again broke the story. This step coincided with US President Barack Obama’s early Saturday phone call to Saudi King Abdullah to discuss the Syrian crisis. They may have discussed a potential Russian or Syrian reprisal for the Israeli air strike.

In their rough, acerbic encounter at the Black Sea resort of Sochi on May 14, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned President Vladimir Putin that if Russia sends advanced weaponry to Syria, such as S-300 anti-aircraft missiles or sophisticated radar for upgrading the Yakhont missiles, Israel would destroy them. Putin retorted that if Israel did this, Moscow would hit back.

…read more…