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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://consortiumnews.com/2023/11/23/idf-knew-real-hamas-hq-while-lying-about-al-shifa/">consortiumnews.com</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">IDF Knew Real Hamas HQ While Lying About al-Shifa</h1>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">November 23, 2023<br></div>
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<p><strong><span>While telling the world that Hamas HQ was under
al-Shifa Hospital, the IDF had already found the actual command center
8.5km away, reports Gareth Porter.</span></strong></p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_103365" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><a href="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/al-Shifa-Damage_in_Gaza_Strip_during_the_October_2023_-_47.jpeg"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-103365" src="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/al-Shifa-Damage_in_Gaza_Strip_during_the_October_2023_-_47.jpeg" alt="" width="391" height="262" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;"></a></p><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-103365" class="gmail-wp-caption-text"><span>Wounded
Palestinians wait for treatment at the overcrowded emergency ward of
Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City following an Israeli airstrike on October
11, 2023.<span> (Wafa (Q2915969) in contract with a local company (APAimages)??/Wikimedia Commons</span></span></p></div>
<p><span><span><strong>By</strong></span> <span><a href="https://consortiumnews.com/tag/gareth-porter/"><strong>Gareth Porter</strong></a><br>
</span></span><em><span>Special to Consortium News</span></em></p>
<p><span><strong><span>A</span></strong>lthough corporate news media
have made it clear they don’t buy the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claim
that al-Shifa Hospital has been a cover for a Hamas command and control
center and weapons armory, Western media have failed to report a much
bigger story.</span></p>
<p><span>The IDF and the Israeli government already knew when they
launched their propaganda campaign about al-Shifa that Hamas had no
military command and control facility hidden there because it had
already found the complex kilometers away.</span></p>
<p><span>As <strong><em>Consortium News </em></strong><a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2023/11/15/israeli-deceit-the-battle-of-shifa-hospital/">reported</a>
last week, for 15 years the Israelis claimed Hamas was operating its
primary command and control base from a tunnel underneath al-Shifa.
After the Israeli bombing campaign against Gaza began in October, the
Israeli military amplified that message to press its contention that by
hiding the Hamas high command, al-Shifa Hospital had lost its immunity
from military operations under the law of war, and could now
legitimately be taken over by force.</span></p>
<p><span>On Nov. 11, IDF spokesman Richard Hecht declared that al-Shifa was the “main hub of Hamas activity;” <em>Newsweek</em> <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/israel-hamas-gaza-shifa-critical-1842857">reported</a> the IDF regarded al-Shifa Hospital as “Hamas’s main command post” and the <em>Times of Israel </em><a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-hamas-compound-israeli-troops-expect-to-find-under-gaza-citys-shifa-hospital/">headlined</a> “Hamas leaders again hiding under hospital”. </span></p>
<p><span>The crescendo of Israeli propaganda about al-Shifa being a “human shield” for Hamas came with a long report published by <em>The New York Times </em>on Nov. 14. It was based on interviews with eight present and former intelligence and defense officials, <a href="http://www.apple.com/">describing a vast military command complex</a> under al-Shifa with multiple levels.</span></p>
<p><span>But something quite unexpected had happened during this new
round of press stories on al-Shifa that completely demolished the entire
IDF story line: the IDF had gained control of the real Hamas command
and control center in an area where the Hamas leadership had previously
had their above-ground offices in the Al Atatra neighborhood, in the
extreme northwest of Beit Lahiya city, 8.5km away from al-Shifa.</span></p>
<p><span>After that office building was demolished, the IDF discovered a
major tunnel facility that was quite certain had been the central
headquarters for the Hamas high command — the command and control center
for the entire war. </span></p>
<p><span>As the IDF <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-773237#:~:text=The%20IDF%20on%20Tuesday%20unveiled,took%20over%20several%20days%20ago.">leaked to <em>The Jerusalem Post</em></a>
in a story published Nov. 14, the discovery was made “several days ago”
of a tunnel with an elevator that reached thirty meters underground,
compared with only five meters underground in other tunnels.
Furthermore it had been equipped with oxygen, air conditioning and more
advanced communications than seen anywhere else.</span></p>
<p><span><strong><span>Discovery of Real Hamas High Command Bunker</span></strong></span></p>
<div class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img src="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Map-to-Shifa-e1700725816329.png" alt="" width="391" height="206" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;"></p><p class="gmail-wp-caption-text"><span>Map shows route to al-Shifa Hospital from the real HQ. <span>(Google Maps)</span></span></p></div>
<p><span>That major IDF discovery, made on or before the Nov. 11 false
stories about al-Shifa, threatened to undermine the Israeli political
campaign to justify the IDF’s takeover and destruction of Gaza’s
hospitals on the grounds that they were “human shields” for Hamas. </span></p>
<p><span>Al-Shifa Hospital was the centerpiece of that campaign, based
on the claim that it was hiding the high command of Hamas in a tunnel
underneath it. Obviously the IDF and the extreme right-wing Israel
government would want to stop all further publicity about the discovery
of the actual Hamas high command’s underground base.</span></p>
<p><span>No story about the discovery of the real Hamas high command
bunker has been published inside Israel or elsewhere in the nearly two
weeks since the detailed <em>Jerusalem Post </em>piece on Nov. 14.
Somehow the Israeli government and media have been able to completely
suppress the discovery of the Hamas headquarters, despite the fact that a
number of foreign news media have offices in Tel Aviv and the story is
still available on the internet.</span></p>
<p><span>Instead of forcing a major climb-down by the IDF and the
Netanyahu and the Biden administrations, the discovery of the real Hamas
underground high-command center merely brought a slight revision in the
wording used to refer to the issue.</span></p>
<p><strong><span>Sullivan Revises Wording of Issue</span></strong></p>
<div class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img src="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/51643779102_4550a9fc3a_b.jpg" alt="" width="391" height="261" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;"></p><p class="gmail-wp-caption-text"><span>White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan speaking to reporters in August 2021. <span>(White House/ Erin Scott)</span></span></p></div>
<p><span>That slight nuance was introduced not by the IDF, but by U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Nov. 13, when he said:</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p><span> “You can see even from open-source reporting that Hamas does use hospitals, along with a lot of <em>other civilian facilities</em>, for <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/13/politics/al-shifa-hospital-us-intelligence/index.html">command and control</a>, for storing weapons, for housing its fighters.” [emphasis added.] </span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span>And a U.S. official familiar with “U.S. intelligence” who may also have been Sullivan, commented that Hamas had a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/13/politics/al-shifa-hospital-us-intelligence/index.html">“command node”</a>
under al-Shifa Hospital, using a term that Israeli officials apparently
adopted in light of the new discovery of the actual high-command
bunker.</span></p>
<p><span>Thus the IDF arrived at al-Shifa late at night on Nov. 15, a day after <em>The Jerusalem Post</em>
story, to begin the process of the Israeli takeover with a propaganda
campaign aimed at convincing the American public in particular that
Hamas had been inside the hospital.</span></p>
<p><span>Several hours later that morning, in a seven-minute video
inside the MRI building, IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus showed “grab
bags” of military gear with AK-47s, grenades and uniforms neatly
arranged on the floor. He insisted that Hamas had used the MRI room to
store weapons and military gear. He also produced one computer, which
he suggested had been found to contain “incriminating evidence” of
military relevance.</span></p>
<p><span>The most obvious problem with this seven-minute video, however,
is that it showed nothing that could not have been easily brought into
the building by the IDF itself. The more serious problem with the
presentation is that it offered no plausible reason for Hamas to have
hidden a few dozen small weapons and other military gear in the MRI room
of a hospital and then supposedly having left them there when they
departed.</span></p>
<p><span>There was simply no need for the Hamas to store weapons there. After all, Hamas is estimated to have <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israeli-soldiers-will-face-labyrinth-hamas-tunnels-rcna121459">150 to 300 miles of space </a>for such storage in its vast tunnel network.</span></p>
<p><span><strong><span>Hagari Video Deleted</span></strong></span></p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_103366" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><a href="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/SoI-War_23-10-27_IDF_07-03.jpeg"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-103366" src="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/SoI-War_23-10-27_IDF_07-03.jpeg" alt="" width="391" height="391" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;"></a></p><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-103366" class="gmail-wp-caption-text"><span>IDF Telegram channel.<span> (<a href="https://t.me/idfofficial/4666/Wikimedia">https://t.me/idfofficial/4666/Wikimedia</a> Commons)</span></span></p></div>
<p><span>A much bigger problem for IDF credibility on al-Shifa is that
on Oct. 27, IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari presented an artist’s conception
showing that Hamas had taken over parts of five different buildings at
al-Shifa Hospital and was using all of them to plan and coordinate its
military activities.</span></p>
<p><span> He also showed a drawing of the structure of the main
building, which he insisted was based on Israeli intelligence, showing
that an underground floor of the main building was completely controlled
by Hamas. He also insisted that there was an entrance within the
hospital to that underground floor.</span></p>
<p><span>The Hagari presentation came before the discovery of the actual
Hamas high-command bunker underneath the above-ground Hamas
high-command office in Beit Lahiya. The IDF has now <a href="https://www.idf.il/en/mini-sites/hamas-israel-war-23/briefings-by-idf-spokesperson-rear-admiral-daniel-hagari/october-press-briefings/press-briefing-by-idf-spokesperson-radm-daniel-hagari-october-28th-10-45/">eliminated the entire video </a>of
that long, detailed and illustrated presentation by Hagari from its
website, because it would become a major embarrassment to the IDF once
the full truth is known.</span></p>
<p><span>In recent days, the IDF has fixed the world’s attention on a tunnel, the opening of which was discovered <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRra0hvjAL0">very close to the outer fence </a>of
al-Shifa Hospital grounds. The tunnel was found by the IDF to be 10m
deep, compared with the 30m deep abandoned high command tunnel. </span></p>
<p><span>On Nov. 21, the IDF announced it had breached the heavy blast
door of the tunnel, meaning that it could now determine what lay on the
other side, if anything. But given that the IDF has already discovered
the real Hamas command bunker elsewhere — and the absence of evidence of
a connection from hospital buildings to a tunnel — the IDF is unlikely
to find such a connection from the tunnel to the hospital.</span></p>
<p><span>The real story of the Israeli effort to sell its argument that
Hamas took over al-Shifa and other hospitals to coordinate attacks is
the massive deception aimed at U.S. media and public opinion in order to
justifying Israel’s <a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2023/11/22/chris-hedges-israels-war-on-hospitals/">war of obliteration</a> of the population of Gaza.</span></p>
<p><span>That campaign of deceit has had the full-throated support of
the Biden administration, which stands equally guilty of misleading the
American people in its support for an illicit Israeli war.</span></p>
<p><span>The failure of the Israeli propaganda campaign has been so
decisive that most major media organizations have explicitly distanced
themselves from the Israeli claims about al-Shifa, and several have
shown either field reporters or analysts in the studio declaring
explicitly that the evidence displayed by the Israelis had not proved
their case at all.</span></p>
<p><span><strong>Gareth Porter is an independent investigative
journalist and historian writing on U.S. national security policy. His
latest book, <em>Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare</em>, was published in February of 2014. Follow him on Twitter: </strong><a href="https://twitter.com/GarethPorter"><strong>@GarethPorter</strong></a><strong>.</strong></span></p>
<p><span><em>The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of <strong>Consortium News.</strong></em></span></p>
<p><span></span> <span>Post Views:</span> <span>13,326</span>
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