The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) slammed Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) for denying that Hamas exploits hospitals for terrorist activities, such as hiding its fighters and ammunition and torturing and interrogating its prisoners.

“We are appalled by reports of an Israeli airstrike within the Al-Aqsa Hospital compound on 29 August. Hospitals should be safe places for patients and healthcare workers,” MSF posted Saturday.

The airstrike MSF referred to was one that targeted and struck Abd al-Fattah Abu al-Eish, a Hamas Nukhba Force commander who participated in the infiltration of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The strike also took out Raed Adel Mohammed Alyan, a terrorist from Hamas’ military wing.

In a statement posted Sunday on X, COGAT cited the IDF report that the military had struck a Hamas commander who was planning attacks against both soldiers and civilians “while hiding inside the Shuhada Al-Aqsa Hospital compound,” adding that this is yet another example of Hamas’ cynical exploitation of civilian infrastructure and that the IDF had warned Gazan officials of this abuse.

“MSF claimed, as it routinely does, that the IDF is targeting healthcare facilities,” COGAT said, accusing the NGO of providing cover to terrorists. “MSF clearly refuses to face reality,” despite clear evidence of Hamas’ use of hospitals for military operations, the group said, saying that MSF ignores complaints even from Gazans about this particular abuse of hospitals by Hamas.

“Once again, MSF is burying its head in the sand, as it consistently fails to see the terrorists operating within and around medical facilities in the Strip,” the group added. “MSF continues to turn a blind eye to complaints from Gazan residents themselves regarding the cynical and illegal presence of masked, armed terrorists conducting interrogations inside hospital grounds.”

In February, the IDF warned MSF it would be expelled from Gaza because it failed to provide a list of all its employees with their full names, which Israel required as a condition of extending its stay. That same month, Palestinian Islamic Jihad identified an MSF worker as a PIJ terrorist who had been killed by an Israeli airstrike.

All the evidence points to MSF as being entangled with Hamas.

The doctors’ organization was implicated in a report by NGO Monitor, which made the following statement in its report:

“Hundreds of captured documents originating with Hamas and analyzed by NGO Monitor reveal that the terrorist group systematically controlled foreign NGOs [including MSF] operating in Gaza and used myriad stratagems to commandeer international aid. Hamas inserted its operatives into administrative positions within international NGOs operating in Gaza; required NGOs to appoint “guarantors” to serve as liaisons to Hamas internal security apparatus; closely surveilled NGO officials and offices; generated beneficiary lists, utilized by the UN and aid organizations, to dictate who would receive cash-assistance; and outright stole aid materials. In response, NGOs and the UN alike adopted a policy of silence and cooperation, becoming complicit in the exploitation of humanitarian principles” [emphasis added].

In other words, Hamas took control of financial aid through crude means such as stealing the aid outright and through covert means such as installing its own operatives to work as employees of such groups as MSF. These Hamas-affiliated employees worked in the administration of MSF and other NGOs and closely coordinated with Hamas’ internal security network, keeping extremely close tabs on NGO officials (down to the way they dressed and their level of religious observance) and providing the NGOs with lists of who should get benefits and cash. MSF and other NGOs complied with all of Hamas’ rules for operating in the Gaza Strip.

“The evidence confirms that NGOs in Gaza do not operate independently or neutrally,” the report added. “Rather, they are embedded in an institutionalized framework of coercion, intimidation, and surveillance that serves Hamas’ terror objectives.”

The report showed that Hamas documents seized by the IDF proved MSF’s awareness of Hamas’ use of medical facilities, despite its denials. At the same time, the organization accused Israel of “genocide,” “apartheid,” “indiscriminate bombings,” “collective punishment,” and “wholesale massacres.”

MSF “consistently abuses its status as a humanitarian organization to launch venomous anti-Israel political campaigns,” NGO Monitor reported.