The Israeli Defense Forces has been claiming that Hamas operated a “command center” in and under Al-Shifa Hospital, but the IDF is lying. Independent journalist Gareth Porter showed this in an article in a special to Consortium News on Nov. 23. The IDF found the actual Hamas command center (or perhaps a command center, as having only one would be a vulnerability that the enemy could exploit) in Beit Lahiya, more than 8 km away from Al-Shifa on Nov. 11. The Jerusalem Post reported this on Nov. 14, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has successfully suppressed the story ever since, even though the Post article is still available. The reason is simple. If it became generally known that the Hamas command center that the IDF has been claiming for 15 years was under Al-Shifa, while in reality it was under a high rise building 8.5 km away, the entire Israeli narrative justifying the destruction of the hospital goes out the window.
There has been one minor adjustment to the narrative, however. The “command center” under the hospital has since become a “command node,” which appears to be an essentially meaningless term in this context.
