Hagari shows pictures of Palestinians who he said were arrested inside the Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza (Al Jazeera)
A security official in the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) denied what the Israeli army claimed about arresting a number of the movement’s leaders inside the Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City after storming it a few days ago.
The security official told Al Jazeera that the list of photos of detainees in Al-Shifa Hospital issued by the Israeli army spokesman is inaccurate.
The official added that a number of the pictures on the list belong to people who are currently outside Gaza, and other pictures are of martyrs, stressing that 3 of the pictures on the list belong to doctors previously released by the occupation.
He also stressed that there is no truth to what the Israeli media is publishing about the arrest of dozens of resistance leaders in Al-Shifa Hospital.
The Hamas security official told Al Jazeera that what is published in the Israeli media is inaccurate and falls within the psychological and moral war against the resistance in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army published a list of what it said belonged to senior Hamas leaders who were arrested during the ongoing operation in the Shifa complex, and that it cannot reveal their identity now.
The military spokesman for the Israeli army, Daniel Hagari, claimed that a number of what he described as saboteurs are currently holed up in the emergency department of the Shifa Medical Complex, and that if they do not surrender, they will be killed.
Since the start of the war on Gaza on October 7, the Israeli army has claimed that the Hamas movement used the Shifa complex as a military headquarters, and that weapons and tunnels were found under the facility, but the resistance denied its allegations, and Western reports also refuted its accounts.
Tonight, the Israeli army published pictures of what it said were resistance members it arrested from the Al-Shifa Medical Complex, and after initial examination it became clear that a number of them were not under arrest, while a large number of civilians and workers in the civil and governmental fields appeared among them, including famous doctors such as Dr. Anwar Al-Sheikh...
- Ramy Abdu| Rami Abdu (@RamAbdu) March 21, 2024
Identities of detainees
Commenting on the photos published by the Israeli army of a number of those arrested at Al-Shifa Medical Complex, who were claimed to be members of the resistance, Rami Abdo, founder and president of the Euro-Mediterranean Observatory, confirmed that a number of those whose photos were published were not under arrest.
Abdo said in his account on the “X” platform that after examining the photos, it became clear that the detainees included a large number of civilians and government employees.
He pointed out that among them were doctors, including Anwar Sheikh Khalil, and a number of residents of the area surrounding the Al-Shifa Complex, and others who were in shelter centers nearby.
The head of the Euro-Mediterranean Observatory explained that after the Israeli army destroyed parts of Al-Shifa Hospital more than 3 months ago, several buildings inside the complex were turned into places to shelter the displaced, as a number of those whose photos appeared were displaced with their families due to the widespread destruction of their homes.
Source: Al Jazeera