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Washington Post Publishes Speculative Hit Piece to Muddy the Waters of Israel’s Shifa Hospital Operation
Israeli soldiers operate at the opening to a tunnel at Al Shifa Hospital compound in Gaza City, amid the ongoing ground operation of the Israeli army against Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in the Gaza Strip, November 22, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/File Photo
A November Washington Post op-ed headline read: “Evidence confirms Israel’s al-Shifa claims, so critics move the goal posts.”
Now, a Washington Post investigation into the “assault on Gaza’s largest hospital” appears to have taken that headline as a challenge, as the investigation’s authors lay out the case that “evidence presented by the Israeli government falls short of showing that Hamas had been using the [al-Shifa] hospital as a command and control center.”
Let’s take a look at their claims:
1. Hamas does not appear to be operating out of al-Shifa
Assertions that Hamas has abused Shifa’s protected status go back many years. So it was hardly a surprise when, as the Post put it, “Weeks before Israel sent troops into al-Shifa Hospital, its spokesman began building a public case.”
Indeed, it was weeks before the IDF took the hospital. Throughout this war, Israel has surrendered the element of surprise in order to minimize the risk of Palestinian civilian casualties. So, given the likelihood that the IDF would reach Shifa, it would have been surprising had Hamas not used the available time to mount a clean-up operation in advance of the IDF’s arrival.
The Post, however, attempts to make the case that Israel committed a war crime for raiding the hospital because it appeared that the hospital was not being used by the terrorists at that exact moment when the IDF took the facility.
Yet, International Law dictates that “injury to civilians … which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated, is prohibited.” The Post readily admits it has no access to either the Israeli intelligence or that of the US, which also stated it had intelligence to back up Israel’s assertions. So this implied accusation falls flat.
2. The tunnels uncovered by the IDF “showed no immediate evidence of military use by Hamas.”
While the underground tunnel uncovered by Israeli forces after the raid does point to a possible militant presence underneath the hospital at some point, it does not prove that a command node was operating there during the war.
“A possible militant presence underneath the hospital at some point”? How many hospitals have military-grade tunnels built underneath them? Why is the Post not asking why there is a tunnel there at all?
Instead, it attempts to show that its estimate of where the tunnel network spreads under Shifa cannot be proven to exactly match the intelligence claims made by the IDF in prior weeks.
We do not know how much of the network has been explored by IDF soldiers. We do know that the IDF has specifically tried to avoid sending its forces physically deep inside the tunnels due to the risk of booby traps and other dangers to Israeli soldiers. So it’s hardly surprising that the IDF has prioritized destroying such tunnels rather than escorting foreign media on extensive tours. It is worth noting that where the IDF has transparently allowed foreign journalists to see the evidence for themselves, the media have done their utmost to minimize or dismiss the evidence.
3. Weapons found in al-Shifa may not have belonged to Hamas
But what about the terrorist presence above ground? The evidence is also dismissed.
Instead of highlighting the weapons uncovered in the hospital, the Post muddies the waters:
The Post was unable to independently verify to whom the weapons belonged or how they came to be inside the radiology unit.
“Unable to independently verify” has become a catchall for the media anytime they want to avoid acknowledging that Israeli evidence is compelling enough to justify its actions or even to sow the seeds to doubt in the minds of readers to imply that evidence could have been planted or staged.
4. Hostages in al-Shifa
And the security camera footage of two hostages, one of whom appeared to be injured, being led through the hospital? According to the Post:
It was not clear if the hostages were taken to the hospital for medical treatment or other purposes.
You decide.
Breaking: the @IDF released cctv footage from the Shifa Hospital with an October 7th time stamp, documenting Hamas terrorists forcibly transporting hostages (a Nepalese civilian and a Thai civilian) through the hospital.
These findings prove that the Hamas terrorist organization… pic.twitter.com/Eww6cOwboh
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) November 19, 2023
Israel stands accused by the Post of using Shifa as a justification for targeting other hospitals in the Gaza Strip. Again, the evidence of Hamas misuse of hospitals is dismissed as in the case of the Kamal Adwan Hospital’s director, Ahmed al-Kahlot.
Israel released an interrogation video Tuesday in which Kahlot admitted to being a member of Hamas and said the hospital was under the control of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the group’s armed wing. In response, Gaza’s Health Ministry said the statement was made “under the force of oppression, torture and intimidation” to “justify [Israel’s] successive crimes, especially against the health system.”
Hamas in their own words:
Ahmad Kahalot—Senior Hamas Member since 2010 and director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabalya in northern Gaza admits that Hamas has used hospitals as military facilities under their control.
Video credit: ISA Spokesperson pic.twitter.com/QGLclR94at
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) December 19, 2023
Gaza’s Health Ministry is run by Hamas. But the Post is content to use a Hamas mouthpiece to cast doubt on the reliability of the confession. Neither Gaza’s Health Ministry nor its Hamas overlords are privy to whatever treatment Kahlot has received while in IDF custody.
Agenda-driven Speculation
The Post piece is defined by what it does not know, leaving its journalists to fill in the gaps with their own agenda-driven speculation.
“The U.S. government has not made any of the declassified material public and the official would not share the intelligence this assessment was based on.”
“When asked if more evidence from al-Shifa would be forthcoming, the [IDF] spokesperson said: ‘We cannot provide additional information.’”
“Without a complete understanding of Israeli intelligence and its battle plans, the legality of Israel’s military operations against al-Shifa remains an open question.”
“The IDF would not comment on the military advantage sought or achieved.”
Indeed, the Post gets comments from several presumed experts, most of whom can only talk in hypotheticals.
It therefore raises more questions than it is able to answer. And without those answers, its entire hypothesis of Israeli war crimes is intellectually dishonest.
Ultimately, The Washington Post’s supposed investigation is nothing more than a (un)sophisticated hit piece that omits important context. An intellectually honest approach would acknowledge the terrible human suffering without implying (with zero evidence) that Israel is committing war crimes.
This reporting is neither groundbreaking nor conclusive. It’s simply a lazy attempt to vilify Israel and absolve Hamas.
The post Washington Post Publishes Speculative Hit Piece to Muddy the Waters of Israel’s Shifa Hospital Operation first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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New Orleans Attack Puts Spotlight on Islamic State Comeback Bid
A member of the Emergency Response Division holds an Islamic State militants flag in the Old City of Mosul, Iraq July 10, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani/File Photo.
A US Army veteran who flew a black Islamic State flag on a truck that he rammed into New Year’s revelers in New Orleans shows how the extremist group still retains the ability to inspire violence despite suffering years of losses to a US-led military coalition.
At the height of its power from 2014-2017, the Islamic State “caliphate” imposed death and torture on communities in vast swathes of Iraq and Syria and enjoyed franchises across the Middle East.
Its then-leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, killed in 2019 by US special forces in northwestern Syria, rose from obscurity to lead the ultra-hardline group and declare himself “caliph” of all Muslims.
The caliphate collapsed in 2017 in Iraq, where it once had a base just a 30-minute drive from Baghdad, and in Syria in 2019, after a sustained military campaign by a US-led coalition.
Islamic State responded by scattering in autonomous cells, its leadership is clandestine and its overall size is hard to quantify. The U.N. estimates it at 10,000 in its heartlands.
The US-led coalition, including some 4,000 US troops in Syria and Iraq, has continued hammering the militants with airstrikes and raids that the US military says have seen hundreds of fighters and leaders killed and captured.
Yet Islamic State has managed some major operations while striving to rebuild and it continues to inspire lone wolf attacks such as the one in New Orleans which killed 14 people.
Those assaults include one by gunmen on a Russian music hall in March 2024 that killed at least 143 people, and two explosions targeting an official ceremony in the Iranian city of Kerman in January 2024 that killed nearly 100.
Despite the counterterrorism pressure, ISIS has regrouped, “repaired its media operations, and restarted external plotting,” Acting US Director for the National Counterterrorism Center Brett Holmgren warned in October.
Geopolitical factors have aided Islamic State. Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has caused widespread anger that jihadists use for recruitment. The risks to Syrian Kurds who are holding thousands of Islamic State prisoners could also create an opening for the group.
Islamic State has not claimed responsibility for the New Orleans attack or praised it on its social media sites, although its supporters have, US law enforcement agencies said.
A senior US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there had been growing concern about Islamic State increasing its recruiting efforts and resurging in Syria.
Those worries were heightened after the fall in December of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the potential for the militant group to fill the vacuum.
‘MOMENTS OF PROMISE’
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned that Islamic State will try to use this period of uncertainty to re-establish capabilities in Syria, but said the United States is determined not to let that happen.
“History shows how quickly moments of promise can descend into conflict and violence,” he said.
A U.N. team that monitors Islamic State activities reported to the U.N. Security Council in July a “risk of resurgence” of the group in the Middle East and increased concerns about the ability of its Afghanistan-based affiliate, ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K), to mount attacks outside the country.
European governments viewed ISIS-K as “the greatest external terrorist threat to Europe,” it said.
“In addition to the executed attacks, the number of plots disrupted or being tracked through the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Levant, Asia, Europe, and potentially as far as North America is striking,” the team said.
Jim Jeffrey, former US ambassador to Iraq and Turkey, and Special Envoy to the Global Coalition To Defeat Islamic State, said the group has long sought to motivate lone wolf attacks like the one in New Orleans.
Its threat, however, remains efforts by ISIS-K to launch major mass casualty attacks like those seen in Moscow and Iran, and in Europe in 2015 and 2016, he said.
ISIS also has continued to focus on Africa.
This week, it said 12 Islamic State militants using booby-trapped vehicles attacked a military base on Tuesday in Somalia’s northeastern region of Puntland, killing around 22 soldiers and wounding dozens more.
It called the assault “the blow of the year. A complex attack that is first of its kind.”
Security analysts say Islamic State in Somalia has grown in strength because of an influx of foreign fighters and more revenue from extorting local businesses, becoming the group’s “nerve centre” in Africa.
‘PATH TO RADICALIZATION’
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Texas native and US Army veteran who once served in Afghanistan, acted alone in the New Orleans attack, the FBI said on Thursday.
Jabbar appeared to have made recordings in which he condemned music, drugs and alcohol, restrictions that echo Islamic State’s playbook.
Investigators were looking into Jabbar’s “path to radicalization,” uncertain how he transformed from military veteran, real-estate agent and one-time employee of the major tax and consulting firm Deloitte into someone who was “100 percent inspired by ISIS,” an acronym for Islamic State.
US intelligence and homeland security officials in recent months have warned local law enforcement about the potential for foreign extremist groups, such as ISIS, to target large public gatherings, specifically with vehicle-ramming attacks, according to intelligence bulletins reviewed by Reuters.
US Central Command said in a public statement in June that Islamic State was attempting to “reconstitute following several years of decreased capability.”
CENTCOM said it based its assessment on Islamic State claims of mounting 153 attacks in Iraq and Syria in the first half of 2024, a rate which would put the group “on pace to more than double the number of attacks” claimed the year before.
H.A. Hellyer, an expert in Middle East studies and senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies, said it was unlikely Islamic State would gain considerable territory again.
He said ISIS and other non-state actors continue to pose a danger, but more due to their ability to unleash “random acts of violence” than by being a territorial entity.
“Not in Syria or Iraq, but there are other places in Africa that a limited amount of territorial control might be possible for a time,” Hellyer said, “but I don’t see that as likely, not as the precursor to a serious comeback.”
The post New Orleans Attack Puts Spotlight on Islamic State Comeback Bid first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Plans $8 Billion Arms Sale to Israel, US Official Says
US President Joe Biden speaks on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in this White House handout image taken in the Oval Office in Washington, US, April 4, 2024. Photo: The White House/Handout via REUTERS
The administration of President Joe Biden has notified Congress of a proposed $8 billion arms sale to Israel, a US official said on Friday, with Washington maintaining support for its ally.
The deal would need approval from the House of Representatives and Senate committees and includes munitions for fighter jets and attack helicopters as well as artillery shells, Axios reported earlier. The package also includes small-diameter bombs and warheads, according to Axios.
The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Protesters have for months demanded an arms embargo against Israel, but US policy has largely remained unchanged. In August, the United States approved the sale of $20 billion in fighter jets and other military equipment to Israel.
The Biden administration says it is helping its ally defend against Iran-backed terrorist groups like Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.
The post US Plans $8 Billion Arms Sale to Israel, US Official Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Releases Proof-of-Life Video of Israeli Hostage Liri Albag
Illustrative. An undated picture of (from left) Liri Albag, Agam Berger, Daniella Gilboa, and Karina Ariev held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, that was made public by their families on July 16, 2024. Photo: Hostages and Missing Families Forum
i24 News – The Palestinian terrorists of Hamas on Saturday released a video showing signs of life from Israeli hostage Liri Albag.
Albag’s family requested media not to share the video or images from it, asking journalists to respect their privacy at this moment.
Albag, 20, is a surveillance soldier stationed at the Nahal Oz base, was abducted on October 7 by Palestinian jihadists.
The post Hamas Releases Proof-of-Life Video of Israeli Hostage Liri Albag first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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