There have been a number of stories about Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital and how it is trying to cope with the number of injured.
But Shifa isn’t only famous for being the biggest hospital in Gaza.
It is known for being the headquarters of Hamas. And this has been well known since at least 2009.
As Tablet wrote in 2014:
The idea that one of Hamas’ main command bunkers is located beneath Shifa Hospital in Gaza City is one of the worst-kept secrets of the Gaza war. …The location is so un-secret that Hamas regularly meets with reporters there. On July 15, for example, William Booth of the Washington Post wrote that the hospital “has become a de facto headquarters for Hamas leaders, who can be seen in the hallways and offices.” Back in 2006, PBS even aired a documentary showing how gunmen roam the halls of the hospital, intimidate the staff, and deny them access to protected locations within the building—where the camera crew was obviously prohibited from filming.
What Hamas wants is for reporters to use … photos of Palestinians killed and wounded by Israelis, which make Palestinians look like innocent victims of wanton Israeli brutality.
To that end, the rules of reporting from Shifa Hospital are easy for any newbie reporter to understand: No pictures of members of Hamas with their weapons inside the hospital, and don’t go anywhere near the bunkers, or the operating rooms where members of Hamas are treated.
…What Hamas has done, therefore, is to turn Shifa Hospital into a Hollywood sound-stage filled with real, live war victims who are used to score propaganda points, while the terrorists inside the hospital itself are erased from photographs and news accounts through a combination of pressure and threats, in order to produce the stories that Hamas wants.
Judging from the coverage in this round, the reporters are sticking to the Hamas playbook perfectly….
Shifa Hospital is the paradigm of how Hamas uses human shields and how it endangers civilians. But because Hamas doesn’t want reporters to mention that….they almost never do.
All of the information about how Hamas has used the Shifa Hospital for its own nefarious purposes for many years should be disseminated right now by the IDF spokesmen, so that the media has time to write about it before the actual IDF attack in northern Gaza — which must surely include Shifa Hospital as one of its targets — takes place.
More here.