Israel plunges into pit of terror shielded by al-Shifa hospital
Israel sending its forces to conduct “a precise and targeted operation” against Hamas in “a specified area” of Gaza City’s largest hospital, al-Shifa, which has been shielding the terrorists’ command base, is a pivotal development in the war. In view of the brutal hand-to-hand combat, and deaths to come, predicting that this is the beginning of the end would be premature. The lives of the hostages snatched by Hamas in Israel on October 7 also could be on the line. But the significance of Israel’s forces moving into the hospital, cynically misused by Hamas at the cost of thousands of patients’ and medicos’ lives, cannot be overstated.
The Jewish state has no alternative but to dig out Hamas and its weaponry, tunnel by tunnel, if it is to destroy the terrorist organisation. Only when that objective is achieved will Israel be more secure and its people, from babies to those in their 90s, safer from jihadists’ bullets, beheadings, burnings and kidnappings. On the other hand, should Hamas survive with any semblance of power, repeated attacks similar to those of October 7 are inevitable. Melbourne-born Mark Regev, a diplomat who has worked for the Jewish state for 15 years, told Yoni Bashan in Tel Aviv that Hamas official Ghazi Hamad predicted on Lebanese TV “a second, a third, a fourth” attempt at replicating October 7 until Israel is annihilated. It must not get the chance. At least when Hamas officials speak their mind, Mr Regev said, “most people are appalled”. Israel’s defeat of Hamas also is crucial if the people of Gaza are to get the chance to look ahead and be supplied with the food, water, medicine and fuel they need desperately.
The Hamas tunnel network runs for hundreds of kilometres under Gaza, with some tunnels 80m underground and equipped with lift shafts, airconditioning, oxygen and advanced communications equipment. Some of those have been found by Israeli soldiers. On Tuesday the White House confirmed what Israel has long alleged and many of its critics disputed. US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby cited independent US intelligence showing “Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad members operate a command and control node from al-Shifa in Gaza City”. As long ago as 2006, a US documentary recorded Hamas terrorists roaming the hospital’s halls, cordoning off wings. The New York Times reported that Hamas was functioning openly in the hospital’s hall. In 2007, Human Rights Watch revealed that Hamas forces had fired at its rival Fatah group from within the hospital. In 2014, Amnesty International found Hamas was torturing prisoners in the hospital grounds.
Islamic State used the same tactics at the main hospital in Mosul, Iraq, in 2016 until US precision airstrikes removed the terrorists and liberated the hospital from the jihadists’ grip. At that time, HRW condemned Islamic State’s tactics. But with Hamas committing similar war crimes, the HRW is singing from a different sheet. “Unlawful Israeli hospital strikes worsen health crisis,” it complained recently, blaming Israel for the current crisis.
Woke, naive critics and some in the media, regrettably, would have the world believe Israel’s counteroffensive is focused on the al -Shifa hospital because of its sick, defenceless Palestinian patients. The reality is very different. Leaders who should know better, such as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, have railed about the plight of Gaza’s hospitals. “The world is watching,” Mr Trudeau warned Israel. “We’re hearing the testimonies of doctors, family members, survivors, kids who have lost their parents.”
The rules of war put normal hospitals off limits as targets for attack (which has not stopped Vladimir Putin in Ukraine). But under the fourth Geneva Convention, Hamas’s misuse of al-Shifa voids that protected status. Israel fulfilled its obligation in terms of the convention to give fair warning of impending military action. It also established a humanitarian corridor from the east side of the hospital to facilitate civilians’ exits, despite Hamas forcing them to stay, sometimes at gunpoint.
The 300,000-strong crowd that turned out in Washington DC on Tuesday for the largest pro-Israel demonstration seen in the US is hopefully a sign of growing awareness about the realities of the conflict. Those realities also need to be understood in Australia. Well before Israel launched its ground offensive, the October 7 terror attacks against Israeli civilians, including children, unleashed an ugly, latent anti-Semitism on our shores, especially among extremist preachers. After the “Gas the Jews” spectacle at the Sydney Opera House on October 9 and Friday night’s hateful rally in Caulfield, Jewish parents understandably are reluctant to let their children go out, even to play weekend sport. If Australia is to remain the great, generally harmonious nation that it is, the issues causing those legitimate fears must be faced.
Police and an anti-terror squad are investigating hate sermons calling for jihad preached at Bankstown’s Al Madina Dawah Centre, exposed by The Australian. But the problem is much wider, the deplorable decision by a Sydney bouncy castle business not to deal with a Jewish school on Sydney’s north shore and to boast about it on social media being a prime example. NSW police rightly have reversed their decision not to investigate. Even in faraway Australia, the conflict has given governments and communities much to think about. As the IDF plunges into one of world’s most treacherous zones, beneath a hospital, most Australians wish them success in bringing a devastating war, and Hamas, to an end.