WATCH: Captured terrorist admits: ‘We lied about Ahli hospital blast, used journalists to blame Israel’
PIJ spokesman reveals systematic use of media and hospitals for terror purposes
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terror group was responsible for the blast at Gaza’s Al-Ahli Hospital last October, its political spokesman Tarek Abu Shaluf admitted to IDF interrogators, based on footage released by the Israeli army on Monday.
Abu Shaluf, a well-known media figure in the enclave, told IDF Intelligence Unit 504 interrogators how the group used Arabic and international media outlets to blame Israel for the explosion that became one of the first major PR victories for the terrorists in the Gaza war.
Abu Shaluf was arrested by the IDF during the large-scale raid of Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital that ended recently and was a well-known media figure in the enclave.
He confirmed that a PIJ rocket was responsible for the explosion at Al-Ahli, locally known as Ma'amadani Hospital.
“To make this story go away, the organization [PIJ] made several moves, it fabricated a story that the rocket was from the ‘occupation’ and that the target was a hospital. For this they relied on some of the stories from the international press,” he said.
Regarding many fabricated pictures ostensibly showing injured children and adults in the Gaza Strip, he said the PIJ has a mechanism in place to push certain narratives.
“They see that there is a certain interest in leveraging a narrative and they implement it. The secretary-general, Ziyad al-Nakhala decides, then the communications department discusses on WhatsApp, and even though the story is not true, they promote it.”
He also told interrogators that international journalists briefed him and other PIJ operatives to talk about the humanitarian situation in Gaza before interviews, urging them to use certain phrases.
These included, “Our right to live,” “We want the situation to return to normal,” and “May our children live like the rest of the children in the world.”
Those interviews are being greenlighted by PIJ before being aired, he added.
While confirming that the terrorists don’t care about the situation of the civilians, he said, “We want to draw attention to the cost of living, the situation in Gaza is very difficult and it bothers people, so we are meeting together with the department head, with Hamas and other speakers from other factions.”
He also revealed the systematic use of hospitals in Gaza for cooperating with Hamas.
“Decisions are made in these rooms, for example, if they want to attack Israel,” Abu Shaluf said.
“There is internet and electricity there 24 hours. You can take a room from the X-ray, emergency, internal, or specialist department without closing the entire department.”
“There is a guy who has connections with one of the ambulance managers, so he uses him to transfer leaders, and wanted or injured people and travels with them,” Abu Shaluf told Israeli interrogators.
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The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
