A report by NGO Monitor, an Israeli research institute that scrutinises the conduct and funding of international NGOs in conflict zones, reveals how Hamas had converted Gaza’s hospitals and medical centres into extensions of its military network.

Drawing on internal documents issued by Hamas’s Ministry of Interior and National Security as early as 2020, the report shows that these medical facilities were described in the internal Hamas documents as: “not neutral spaces” and as: “gathering for many commanders of the movement [Hamas].”

According to NGO Monitor, the directives contained in the Hamas documents outline how medical facilities serve dual roles: treating the wounded and protecting fighters who hold: “sensitive positions in the resistance.”

In practice, this means medical wards and administrative rooms were repurposed to store weapons, run secure communications, and provide cover for senior Hamas operatives.

The report argues that this practice is not incidental but integral to Hamas’s method of warfare. By purposefully operating from within civilian infrastructure, Hamas ensured that any Israeli strike risked civilian casualties and global outrage, a tactic that turned patients and doctors into involuntary human shields.

Under the laws of armed conflict, hospitals enjoy special protection, and may never be attacked simply because they sit in a war zone. That protection, however, depends on neutrality. If a hospital is used to store weapons, shelter fighters, or co-ordinate operations, it can lose that protected status for as long as it is being used in that way.

Even then, international law requires the attacker to verify the military use, issue warnings where possible, and ensure any response is proportionate and precise.

In this respect, Israel’s military routinely issues advance warnings through phone calls, text messages, leaflets, and temporary ceasefires at a scale unmatched by any modern force. These measures are intended to reduce civilian casualties even when Hamas deliberately places its assets among them.

The strategic logic employed by Hamas is tragically straightforward. Hamas understands that positioning its fighters and commanders among the sick and wounded grants it powerful moral leverage in the court of global opinion.

Each time the world reacts with horror to images of damaged hospitals or civilian suffering, the movement strengthens its narrative of victimhood and deflects attention from its own violations.

What begins as the exploitation of humanitarian sanctuaries gradually becomes a calculated weapon of information warfare, where every casualty and ruined ward serves both military and political ends.