Hamas fired a rocket at Israeli soldiers in Khan Yunis from within the southern Gaza city’s Nasser Hospital, the Israel Defense Forces said on Tuesday.
The IDF said the launch occurred “earlier this week” and was detected by military systems.
“The Hamas terrorist organization systematically operates in Gaza’s hospitals and nearby areas, using civilians as human shields and exploiting hospital infrastructure including electricity and water,” the military said in a statement.
Since the war, Israel has uncovered extensive use of Gaza’s hospitals and clinics by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists.
In December, Ahmed Kahlot, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, confirmed to Israeli interrogators that he and other staff were Hamas operatives.
During the interrogation, Kahlot described how Hamas used hospitals and ambulances to hide operatives, launch military activity, transport members of terror squads and even a deliver a kidnapped Israeli soldier.
Other Gazans have told Israeli interrogators deeply embedded themselves in the Palestinian Red Crescent Society to use hospitals as a base for attacks.
As reported by the Tazpit Press Service, Hamas made extensive use of the Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical center. Hamas launched rockets from its compound, hid hostages in the bowels of the building, tortured collaborators, and dug tunnels connecting Shifa to nearby sites. Israel also released a recording of a phone call confirming that Hamas also stores at least a half-million liters of fuel underneath the compound.
At least 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on Oct. 7. The number of men, women, children, soldiers and foreigners held captive in Gaza by Hamas is now believed to be 129. Other people remain unaccounted for as Israeli authorities continue to identify bodies and search for human remains.
