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CNN is getting more critical, although still mostly ignoring the genocide

Israel’s military releases interrogation video in bid to defend assault on Gaza hospitals

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/08/middleeast/israel-military-kamal-adwan-gaza-interrogation-video-intl/index.html

The Israeli military, in an effort to defend its devastating assaults on Gaza’s hospitals, this week released an edited interrogation video that it said bolstered its case that Hamas uses medical facilities as cover for military activity.

In the footage, a man who is said to be a staff member of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, says he joined Hamas’ military wing in 2021, and that the organization and its ally, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, base themselves at hospitals because they believe the Israeli military will not target them there.

Speaking while in Israeli detention, the man appears to be under direct or implied duress. The Geneva Conventions, a set of treaties that set humanitarian rules for war, protecting civilians and soldiers, say that images of prisoners of war (POW) should not be exposed to “public curiosity.” The International Committee of the Red Cross says that that extends to videotaped interrogations: “Even if POWs appear to make voluntary public statements or willingly participate in the recording of images, disclosure to the public remains unlawful,” because “their wellbeing depends entirely on an enemy power.”


Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI), which has visited some of the more than 130 Gazan medical professionals in Israeli detention, says those detained have routinely been subjected to torture – something the Israeli government denies.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/10/middleeast/israel-sde-teiman-detention-whistleblowers-intl-cmd

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have repeatedly targeted Gaza hospitals with armed drones and ground raids, alleging that Hamas uses the facilities as “command and control” centers. The military has regularly released interrogation videos with healthcare personnel detained in those raids as well as photos of small arms allegedly found at hospitals, and videos of militants operating in the vicinity of hospitals – but it has not presented conclusive evidence about a single command center located within a hospital complex.

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The US State Department says it agrees with Israel’s assessment about Hamas using hospitals as “command and control” centers. Israel’s most forceful accusation came early in the war, when it said that there was a bunker facility under Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital. When CNN was taken to the facility under IDF escort, journalists were shown a shaft at the hospital complex, but no evidence to suggest that there was a command-and-control facility.

This is not the first time the Israeli government has released a video with an interrogation of a Kamal Adwan staff member. In December 2023, Israel’s Internal Security Agency, known as Shin Bet, released an interrogation video of Ahmed Al-Kahlot, then the director of the hospital. He said that the Hamas political leadership used the hospital in the early days of the war because they felt they would not be targeted there. Dr. Al Kahlot, who was arrested in December 2023, remains in Israeli detention.

Early in the war, the Israeli military released videos that it said showed Hamas’ presence at Al-Shifa hospital, presenting security camera footage that appeared to show hostages being brought through the hospital. CNN could not independently verify the content of the videos.

The IDF has also regularly released videos of, and shown journalists, caches of small arms allegedly found at hospitals, though CNN analysis has shown that some of those weapons may have been moved or placed there prior to journalists’ visits.