Interrogated Terrorist Appears to Admit Palestinian Rocket Hit Al-Ahly Hospital

Israel released video Monday of an interrogation of a Palestinian Islamic Jihad official admitting that one of its rockets hit the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, and not an Israeli airstrike, as Palestinians and the media originally claimed.

The official, Tariq Salami Otha Abu Shlouf, is the spokesman for the Political Bureau of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip. He was one of the more than 500 terrorists arrested during a two-week operation at Shifa Hospital.

Abu Shlouf also described in detail (in a longer video than the one below), how Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad use hospitals as operations bases. He suggested that every hospital in Gaza, in fact, is used in that way, because of 24-hour electricity and Internet access. He also detailed the way in which Palestinian terror groups fabricate stories and distribute them to the global media, and review international media articles before allowing them to be published.

In a joint statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israel Security Agency (ISA, or Shabak, or Shin Bet) said:

During the precise, intelligence-based operation carried out by the IDF and the Israel Security Agency (ISA) in the Shifa Hospital, more than 500 terrorist operatives associated with terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip were apprehended. The terrorists, who were transferred to Unit 504 of the Intelligence Directorate and the ISA, included senior officials and operatives who are significant sources of information for the terror organizations. Among the terrorists detained was the spokesperson for the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization’s Political Bureau in the Gaza Strip, Tariq Salami Otha Abu Shlouf, whose interrogation provides insight into the propaganda and incitement operations carried out by the terrorist organizations.

During the interrogation, Tariq revealed details of the operational method used by the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip to manipulate the Arabic and international media, with a focus on creating false narratives and lies about what is happening in the Gaza Strip. Moreover, Tariq admitted that the explosion in the Al-Ahli Al-Ma’mdani Hospital at the beginning of the war was caused by an Islamic Jihad rocket, and that the organization chose to knowingly lie and blame Israel for the event.

Tariq acted to incite terror and propaganda operations from within the Shifa Hospital and admitted to the use of the hospital compound and medical equipment for terrorist purposes, such as using ambulances to transport senior operatives of the terrorist organizations into and out of the hospital.

As Breitbart News reported in October, the rocket that hit the hospital likely hit its parking lot, not the hospital itself, and was a misfired Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket, not an Israeli airstrike.

The mainstream media had run with the false Palestinian claim for hours before the truth emerged. Many also reported the erroneous death figure of some 500 dead, which was supplied by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, which is still widely cited by the media.