Israeli special forces are operating in Nasser hospital, one of the main hospitals in the city of Khan Yunis, where the Israel Defence Forces have been fighting Hamas for several weeks.

IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari explained that the raid is based on ‘reliable intelligence’ about terrorist activity in the hospital. According to Hagari, there is also information, based on accounts given by released hostages as well as other sources, that several bodies of Israeli hostages abducted into Gaza during the 7th October attack are being kept there.

The IDF has been searching for the Israeli hostages in Gaza since the war began. It has managed to extract three hostages alive in complicated and dangerous operations. It has also found several bodies and repatriated them. Tragically, the IDF accidentally killed three hostages after mistaking them for energy combatants.

The IDF has notified the hospital about the raid in advance, and taken measures to minimise harm to civilians, hospital staff and medical equipment. But the hospital still houses thousands of patients and refugees, making the raid extremely risky. This is happening at a time when Israel is under considerable international pressure to show restraint and minimise casualties among civilians.

This isn’t the first time the IDF has operated inside a Palestinian hospital since the war started. Many Gazan hospitals have dual uses. As well as treating patients, Gaza hospitals have tunnels under them into which terrorists can enter through different areas. Hamas have established command centres in or under hospitals, and have used them for hiding weapons and firing missiles into Israel or against military forces.

The use of hospitals serves Hamas well. Vulnerable patients make effective human shields, and attacking them makes Israel look bad. Some international commentators have suggested that Israel’s actions violate international laws. Although hospitals are considered protected civilian objects under international humanitarian law, if they are used by a party to a conflict for ‘acts harmful to an enemy’ they are no longer protected by law. In other words, Hamas’s cynical use of hospitals has turned them into valid military targets. Israel has to raid them in order to destroy Hamas infrastructure and communications abilities, confiscate weapons and to look for hostages.

Hamas has been using hospitals in this way for many years, knowing that Israel prefers to refrain from attacking them – which used to be the case, until the war made it a necessity. Al Shifa hospital in northern Gaza, for example, was found to be the hiding place of Hamas’s internal security command centre and was regularly manned by armed terrorists. The command centre was used to direct rocket attacks and Hamas ground forces. The hospital was also used for hiding a large arsenal of weapons. According to American and Israeli intelligence, Israeli hostages have been held in Al Shifa and other hospitals in Gaza.

Similarly, the IDF has uncovered tunnels, weapons and evidence that hostages have been held in Al-Rantisi hospital in Gaza city. The IDF also discovered Hamas tunnels under the Qatari Hospital and apprehended terrorists operating from the Kamal Adwan hospital – with the hospital’s director revealing to Israeli interrogators that Hamas has turned his hospital into a military facility.

Hamas has been denying using hospitals for military purposes for years. But now the abundance of evidence not only exposes their lies but also indicates that medical staff and mangers must have been aware of this too, despite their denials. Hospitals didn’t just house armed Hamas terrorists, they also supplied water, power, petrol and air-conditioning to the vast array of tunnels, control rooms and living quarters built by Hamas.

Hamas has embedded their operations deep within Palestinian civilian life. This includes not only hospitals, but schools, religious institutions and UN facilities. It plays a major part in their modus operandi.

The secret’s out now. Hamas has been using international aid money to build tunnels and arm itself. It has been taking cover behind civilians, turning otherwise protected objects into legitimate targets. Nasser hospital, where Israeli forces have already detained several terrorists, is no different.