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TEL AVIV: The Israeli army accused Hamas on Friday of abusing hospitals in the Gaza Strip for military purposes, as war rages in and around the Palestinian territory.
The allegation was swiftly denied by Hamas, and the main UN agency working in Gaza said earlier it had mechanisms in place to prevent aid being diverted.
“Hamas wages war from hospitals” in Gaza, military spokesman Daniel Hagari told journalists, adding that the group was also using fuel stored in hospitals to help carry out its operations.
Hagari specifically identified Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest in Gaza, as one from which Hamas militants were operating.
“Terrorists move freely” in Shifa and other hospitals, he said.
Hagari said Hamas had relied on hospitals to maintain its war effort, charging that the group had used hospitals “as command and control centers and hideouts.”
The spokesman said some entrances to the sprawling network of tunnels Hamas has built under Gaza could also be found inside hospitals, calling it a “cynical” use of medical facilities to shield their operations.
“There is fuel in hospitals and Hamas is using it for its terror infrastructure,” he added.
A senior member of the Hamas political bureau, Izzat Al-Rishq, swiftly fired back at the allegations from the Israeli army, calling them unfounded.
“There’s no basis in truth in what the spokesman of the enemy army stated,” Al-Rishq said, accusing Israel of making up the allegations to “pave the way for a new massacre to be committed against our people.”
Earlier the commissioner general for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees or UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, denied that any aid was being diverted.
“We have solid monitoring mechanisms ... UNRWA does not and will not divert any humanitarian aid into the wrong hands,” Lazzarini said.
Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza left a vacuum that Hamas quickly filled. The group won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006, and the following year violently seized control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority.
Israel imposed a blockade, limiting movement in and out of Gaza in hopes of weakening Hamas. It waged a series of wars and smaller battles with Hamas — a policy known as “mowing the lawn” that was meant to keep the group in check.