Students at Harvard University held a vigil or “community wake” on Tuesday in memory of the “victims” of an Israeli attack on Shifa Hospital in Gaza — who were actually Hamas terrorists, including a senior Hamas official.
Earlier in the war, Israel discovered that Hamas used Shifa Hospital to hide terrorists, hostages, and weapons. It found sophisticated tunnels under the facility, including a command center and facilities for long-term residence. Hamas used other hospitals in the Gaza Strip in similar ways, often fighting IDF troops from within the facilities.
Early Monday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) revealed that it was conducting a limited operation at the hospital, acting on intelligence that Hamas terrorists had returned to Shifa to use it as a base of operations.
The IDF announced that it had eliminated Faiq Mabhouh, head of the Operations Directorate of Hamas’ Internal Security, who had holed up in the hospital prior to the operation.
In addition, the IDF revealed that it had arrested scores of Hamas terrorists who had used the hospital as a base.
It is a war crime to use hospitals as military installations.
Nevertheless, Harvard students decided to hold a vigil for the alleged “victims” of the IDF operation at Shifa.
Harvard University students held a “community wake” on campus today after the IDF raided Al Shifa hospital and killed Faiq Mabhuoch, head of the Operations Directorate of Hamas’ Internal Security. pic.twitter.com/ATurq3Jhug
— Kassy Akiva (@KassyDillon) March 19, 2024
The Harvard Crimson covered the vigil without mentioning the Hamas presence at the hospital — indeed, the word “Hamas” did not appear once in the text of the article published by the prestigious student newspaper:
Approximately 80 Harvard affiliates and local residents attended a vigil in the Smith Campus Center Tuesday afternoon to mourn the victims of the Israeli raid on Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza.
Early Monday, Israeli troops raided the largest hospital facility in Gaza, killing at least 20 people and detaining dozens more, including journalists.
…
“Each of these Palestinian martyrs were parents, children, and loved ones,” one speaker said. “They were healthcare workers who dedicated their lives to healing others, patients who are fighting for survival, and displaced families looking for shelter.”
Neither the students participating in the vigil, nor the Crimson, differentiated between terrorists and civilians.
IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari described the Shifa operation in a briefing (translation via IDF):
Tonight at around 2:30 AM, IDF soldiers embarked on a focused operation in the Shifa Hospital compound.
According to precise intelligence information from the ISA [Israel Security Agency, or “Shin Bet,” or “Shabak”] and the Intelligence Directorate, Hamas terrorists, including field commanders, fled to the area of the hospital, are hiding there and turned it into a command center from which they dispatched and managed terrorist operations and managed combat. We have been tracking this compound for some time and waited for the most appropriate time to act.
Before dawn, forces from Shayetet 13 and other special units took control of the Shifa Hospital compound and certain buildings within the compound by surprise based on the precise intelligence. Armored and Infantry forces from 401st Brigade under the command of the 162nd Division encircled the hospital area with tanks and soldiers in order to prevent terrorists from escaping the area. The IAF provided aerial coverage over the entire area throughout the operation.
As our forces entered the compound, surprised terrorists barricaded themselves in several buildings in the hospital and opened fire from within the hospital towards our forces, from rooms within the building and from various parts of the compound, there were a number of encounters with terrorists in the area. Our forces returned fire, and exchanges of fire developed on site. Additionally, a combat helicopter precisely struck one of the rooms from which fire was directed at our forces, and only terrorists were killed inside the room due to this strike.
During the operation, we apprehended over two hundred terror suspects who are currently under investigation, eliminated more than twenty terrorists within the hospital area, including the terrorist Faiq Mabhouh, who served as the head of the Special Operations Directorate of Hamas’ Internal Security. He was killed in an encounter with Shayetet 13 forces in the hospital area. In addition, forces from 401st Brigade eliminated more than twenty terrorists just in the area surrounding the hospital.
During the battles, IDF soldier SSGT Matan Vinogradov z”l, fell in combat. I send condolences to his family in these difficult hours. We are accompanying them and share in their grief.
During searches in the hospital, our forces found weapons and money intended for distribution to Hamas terrorists within the hospital. This money indicates a mechanism, a mechanism that the terrorists exploited, including senior field operatives, to manage a Hamas mechanism from within the hospital, to distribute money to terror operatives and from there to dispatch operations. Even while Hamas terrorists hide inside the hospital, the terrorists first and foremost took care of themselves, at the expense of the patients and civilians there.
The Hamas terrorist organization continues to systematically operate from hospitals and civilian infrastructure and exploits civilians and patients as human shields.
Hamas tried to rebuild its base in the hospital and use it as a refuge for fleeing terrorists. We will not allow this and will strike and continue to strike wherever Hamas tries to regain its control.IDF forces continue to operate in the hospital area tonight. We still have buildings to scan and more terrorists in the area that we know about. Any terrorist trying to escape, we will harm, we call upon the terrorists to surrender, we declare through ISA personnel and soldiers of Unit 504 call upon them to surrender, dozens have already surrendered, many of whom are in field investigations of Unit 504. This unit brings intelligence in real-time during the operation through which we discover more things in the hospital and in the area.
The IDF added that it would protect normal hospital operations, even as it removed Hamas from the facility.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
Photo: file
