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 Hamas, in the Gaza Strip, Nov. 22, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

A Palestinian Islamic Jihad spokesman has confessed that terrorists have taken over all of the hospitals in Gaza, using the medical facilities to hide military activities and launch attacks.

In a video released by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Monday evening, Tarek Abu Shaluf also admitted to an Israeli interrogator from military intelligence that the terrorist group had initially lied about the source of a deadly rocket strike on the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital at the beginning of the war, falsely blaming Israel in an attempt to cover up the group’s involvement.

The IDF at the time had released audio recordings in which Hamas officials can be heard admitting that Palestinian Islamic Jihad was responsible for the misfired rocket.

“We fabricated a story that the rocket belonged to the ‘occupation’ [Israel] and that the target was the building” of Al-Ahli hospital, Abu Shaluf said in the newest recording. He added that the terrorist group’s communications department chose to lie in order to “erase” the fact that the rocket had fallen short of its target. He went on to say that they also “relied on the stories in the international press.”

The IDF said Abu Shaluf was one of around 900 suspects detained during the recent two-week raid on the Shifa Hospital complex, over 500 of whom were confirmed to be active terrorists. The operation also resulted in the elimination of more than 200 armed militants, including senior commanders from both Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

“All of the hospitals,” Abu Shaluf told his interrogator when asked which medical facilities Hamas and Islamic Jihad utilize for their activities. He explained that the groups are able to occupy rooms and wards in every hospital across the coastal enclave, exploiting the 24/7 internet connectivity and electricity to conceal their operations.

The revelations corroborate long-standing Israeli claims that Palestinian terrorist factions systematically abuse the protected status of hospitals and other civilian infrastructure for military purposes — a flagrant violation of international law.

Hamas has consistently denied using hospitals and other civilian sites for military activities, despite mounting evidence to the contrary.

The Al-Ahli hospital strike on Oct. 17 was reported by all major news outlets minutes after it occurred. Many mainstream publications, including the New York Times, the Associated Press, and the BBC, came under fire for accepting the Hamas-released death toll at face value. The Times‘ headline said the strike killed “hundreds.” AFP later put the number of those killed by the misfired rocket at between 50-90.