Sometimes, a report omits details that are so blatant, so obvious, and so critical for the background and context of a story that one must question the outlet’s intent in doing so. ABC’s recent coverage on Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital is one of those instances, ignoring clear and significant evidence that Hamas used the hospital (and still does), as a military command center.
On Oct. 8, ABC aired a seven-minute video report titled “A Palestinian nurse in Gaza among many medical professionals held without charge.” The report spends several minutes interviewing one nurse who was at the hospital during a December 2024 IDF raid to root out Hamas from the medical structure.
ABC levies that “the IDF claimed that the hospital was a Hamas terrorist center” against a statement from the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health denying those claims. The report then continues, as if this is a simple he-said she-said scenario and as if the word of a foreign terrorist organization with a documented history of using hospitals was trustworthy.
The evidence that ABC chose to ignore is staggering and even includes a Hamas admission that it utilized Kamal Adwan as an operative base.
On December 27, 2024, Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) unit announced that the IDF had begun an operation “in the area of Kamal Adwan Hospital,” alleging that Hamas had used the facility as a “key stronghold for terrorist organizations.”
The statement stressed that the IDF was seeking to reduce risk to civilians in the area, including the overseeing “the secure evacuation of civilians, patients, and medical personnel prior to the operation, in coordination “with local officials in the health authorities and international organizations.” The IDF also said that it would “make extensive efforts for patients to continue receiving care in other hospitals.”
Tweet from the IDF in which it states that over 70 terrorists were apprehended in an operation inside Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza (Israel Defense Forces)
Even before the December mission, the hospital had a shady past. It had served as a Hamas haven following the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel. In fact, on December 20, a Hamas terrorist admitted that the group had used the hospital as a command center. Hamas Lieutenant Colonel Ahmad Kahalot states in a released interrogation video that the facility was under Hamas control, and that at least one Israeli hostage was brought to the hospital. The IDF conducted an operation around the same time, where they arrested over 70 Hamas operatives. Following the operation, the IDF and Israel’s internal Shin Bet intelligence agency stated that some of the captured individuals had participated in the Oct. 7 attacks.
On November 4, 2024, Palestinian terrorists detonated an explosive device against a humanitarian convoy near the hospital, wounding six children. A Gazan ambulance driver said in October 2024 that Hamas terrorists were “present … in the courtyards, at the gates of the buildings, in the offices,” adding that “they operate ambulances to transport their wounded military operatives and to transport them for their missions. And in May 2024, Kurdish news outlet Rudaw reported that he had witnessed Hamas leaders hiding in Kamal Adwan Hospital and even spoke to “one of the founders of Hamas” inside the facility.
Following the December 2024 operation, the IDF said that it had arrested some 240 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists using the Kamal Adwan Hospital as a base in northern Gaza, an operation that at the time represented one of the largest arrests of terrorists since the start of the war in Gaza. During the operation, the IDF said that some of the terrorists had hidden in ambulances while disguising themselves as patients.
Combat equipment discovered in Kamal Adwan Hospital, Israel Defense Forces
ABC included exactly NONE of these facts and accounts in its report. One may point out that the IDF reports on Hamas activity in Kamal Adwan were from 1-2 years ago. This may have been a valid counterargument if the IDF hadn’t just released video evidence on Oct. 11 of 2026 of Hamas terrorists still using the hospital as a base. “Hamas terrorists continue to use the hospital to advance attacks and restore Hamas’ capabilities, while exploiting the presence of patients, medical staff, and using civilians as human shields, in violation of international law,” the IDF statement read.
ABC’s omission of Kamal Adwan Hospital’s historic terror ties, as admitted by Hamas itself, and continued documented dual use as a hub for terror activities represents serious journalistic malpractice. Frankly, when a news outlet leaves out information so central to understanding the circumstances surrounding its own reporting, it fails not only its viewers but its most basic journalistic responsibility and raises serious questions about the outlet’s motives. What else is ABC hiding from its Gaza coverage? Why is ABC providing cover for Hamas when it comes to the terrorist organization’s use of Kamal Adwan? And what does the outlet stand to gain from erasing Hamas’ violations of international law from the picture entirely?