IDF Releases Footage It Says Shows Hamas Terrorists Operating Inside Gaza Hospital

The IDF released footage on Sunday that it says shows Hamas terrorists operating inside Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, The Jerusalem Post reports. According to the IDF, the footage shows how the terror group uses the hospital's grounds as an operations center.

The military said the footage shows that Hamas is still exploiting the presence of patients, medical staff and civilians as human shields, which it called a violation of international law. TPS reports the hospital operates as a medical clinic by day, while the building and its surroundings give terrorists cover as they try to restore their capabilities and launch attacks.

“The hospital and its surrounding area have been used by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) over the past few years to advance terror plots against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers,” the military said, according to The Jerusalem Post. “This was done while exploiting a medical facility and despite repeated calls by Israel and the IDF to refrain from the military use of medical facilities.”

The footage adds to a record the IDF has built over years. Back in August, The Jerusalem Post reports, intelligence revealed that Hamas had set up an ambush against IDF soldiers using a structure some 70 meters from the hospital. The military struck the site. The IDF also operated near the hospital in 2024 and 2025, and one of those operations showed that both Hamas and PIJ used the site to store weapons and explosives. In December 2024, TPS reports, troops seized extensive weapons at the hospital complex and detained over 240 Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives.

The most telling evidence came from a captured terrorist. During one operation, the military captured Anas Muhammad Faiz al-Sharif near the hospital and transferred him to Israel for questioning. Sharif, 21, joined Hamas in 2021, The Jerusalem Post reports. He told interrogators the hospital grounds were used to move equipment and weapons for attacks on Israeli forces. “Weapons were moved in and out of the hospital for ambushes and tunnels,” he said. He also said Hamas and PIJ operatives counted on the patients to protect them. “They believe the army can’t bomb the location, like with an F-16 missile, or destroy the building,” he explained.

What it means: Hamas's plan depends on hiding behind the sick and the wounded. By Sharif's own account, the operatives count on the patients to keep the building safe from attack. The IDF says intelligence from these arrests has proven critical for ongoing operations. Releasing the footage puts the evidence on the record for the world to see.

The structure Hamas used for the August ambush stood close to more than the hospital, The Jerusalem Post reports. The military said the site was also 50 meters from the Yellow Line and 170 meters from a school. It called the site an example of Hamas's systematic use of civilian and humanitarian infrastructure. The Post places the hospital in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, and reports that Sharif was one of 240 terrorists apprehended in the area around it.