By J.M. Phelps (One News Now)
As Israel fends off inaccurate statements from the international press following the recent targeting of a building in Gaza, a former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officer explains that the terrorist group Hamas hides beneath literally every building in that area.
On Saturday, an Israeli airstrike targeted and destroyed a 12-story building in Gaza City that housed the offices of The Associated Press, Al-Jazeera, and other media outlets. While the attack drew widespread criticism from the typically anti-Israel mainstream media, on Monday a former AP editor in the Jerusalem bureau suggested “there were indeed Hamas offices there.”
Miri Eisin is a former head of the IDF’s combat intelligence corps and assistant to the director of military intelligence. In an exclusive interview with One News, she points out the inhabitants of the 12-story al-Jalaa tower were safely evacuated from the building after being warned of an imminent airstrike by the Israeli military.
“Who else [but Israel] would announce an hour or two beforehand that they’re going to attack a building because Hamas is in the bottom of it?” she asks.
According to Eisin, the building was built in 2014 and was recognized by the IDF to contain military assets belonging to the intelligence offices of the Hamas terror organization. “The basement of the building was built as a cyber headquarters for Hamas,” she adds.
AP described the attack as “shocking and horrifying,” while Al-Jazeera denounced the incident and called for the government of Israel to be held accountable. But Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) questioned the AP’s knowledge of Hamas’ presence.
“Why is the Associated Press sharing a building with Hamas?” Cotton asked earlier this week. “Surely these intrepid reporters knew who their neighbors were.”
While the former IDF intel officer also questions whether the AP, Al-Jazeera, or others knew about Hamas’ presence, she offers this revealing statement: “Hamas is underneath literally every building, part of a whole subterranean [network of] an enormous underground tunnel system.”
According to Eisin, a vast, interconnected network of tunnels exists below nearly all structures of the Gaza Strip.
“Anybody, anywhere knows that underneath [those structures], Hamas terrorists are running around in tunnels,” she says – adding that the tunnels aren’t used to protect the people of the Gaza Strip, but instead to launch attacks against Israel, store a massive number of weapons, and serve as the location of Hamas headquarters for intel and cyber operations, for example.
Eisin admits she has a great appreciation for media – but when the AP began running stories to denounce Israel’s decision to destroy the building, she called it “the height of hypocrisy.”
And because Hamas rules the Gaza Strip, she continues, journalists aren’t able to freely and accurately report what transpires in the region.
“If there is a report against Hamas … if there is a report that Hamas has a cache of weapons in a basement or is firing [rockets] from a building, hospital or mosque,” Eisin says, “[those reporters] will be violently evicted and not allowed to be there at all.”
In addition, she notes there are very few international reporters in Gaza, as most of the people working for the different news agencies are Palestinian.
The greater crux of the problem is that Hamas deliberately places the center of their operations in crowded, urban areas, effectively surrounding themselves with human shields – which Eisin argues is both a tragedy for the Palestinian people and a challenge when Israel tries to defend itself. She points out that even with the protection of the Iron Dome, the Jewish nation suffers casualties
“[Is the IDF] allowed to launch strikes in Gaza to stop rockets from firing into Israel?” she wonders. “[To protect itself], Israel must stop the rockets from where they are being fired.”
However, she explains, the narrative typically goes like this: “[The number of deaths in the current conflict] are presented as a statistical number, [arguing that] Israel is killing too many and not enough Israelis have been killed.”
She says the proportionate response to the 3,200 rockets that have been fired into Israel would actually be an equal number of attacks from Israel. “[But] Israel is exceedingly careful and precise in their response to Hamas [in an attempt to spare the number of civilian deaths],” she concludes.
The proverbial elephant in the room, Eisin points out, is that Hamas needs to stop hiding behind the innocent people of the Gaza Strip.
J.M. Phelps is a counter-terrorism specialist, suicide bombing expert, and freelance journalist, focusing on national security for OneNewsNow. He is also editor and publisher of the website Lantern of Liberty.
Originally published by One News Now on Wednesday, May 19, 2021.
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