After bisecting the Gaza Strip and surrounding Gaza City with a ring of Armored Corps steel, the IDF’s strategy is clear: to grapple immediately with Hamas leadership at their headquarters, deferring the deadly work of pacifying the rest of the city until the day after.
That makes Shifa Hospital, in the city’s upscale Rimal neighborhood, the focus of the war’s next stage. Gaza’s most important medical facility also doubles as Hamas’s headquarters. It is said to be linked to the massive tunnel network known as the “Gaza Metro” that Hamas has created over the last 15 years. The Shifa branch of the Metro, the IDF says, contains vast stores of ammunition and fuel, as well as facilities to direct Hamas rocket forces and field operatives.
While today, outlets like the Washington Post cast doubt on Israeli claims to that effect, back in 2014, the paper reported simply that the hospital “has become a de facto headquarters for Hamas leaders, who can be seen in the hallways and offices.”
The medical facility’s dual use has a long history. On the second day of the Six Day War, IDF forces took over the hospital, which was then used to sign the surrender of the Gaza Strip from Egyptian forces. In 1969, the hospital’s director, Dr. Riyad Zianoun, was forced to step down after revelations that he was working with local armed groups. Later, in the ’90s, hooded terrorists invaded the operating theater and killed a patient who’d fallen victim to intra-Palestinian violence.
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