A Hamas terrorist who was supposed to be transferred to a military facility following treatment in a Jerusalem hospital was instead moved to a medical center in southern Israel, Channel 12 News reported Thursday.
In a statement cited by the broadcaster, Assuta Ashdod Medical Center confirmed that “this is a security prisoner who was brought here under the responsibility of the Ministry of Health, the army and security forces. The hospital is not informed of the details of the arrest of individual detainees and is not a party to where they will be treated,” added Assuta.
“Dear residents of Ashdod and the south, be advised that Shas Party Health Minister Uriel Buso transferred the terrorist who was hospitalized in Hadassah Mount Scopus yesterday to Assuta Hospital in Ashdod,” tweeted Herzl Hajaj, whose daughter was killed in a 2017 terrorist attack.
“Unfortunately, I can’t make it there today, but you are welcome to visit the terrorist,” Hajaj, who represents Choosing Life, a forum of Israeli terror victims and bereaved families, wrote to his followers.
On Wednesday, Dozens of protesters swarmed the halls of Hadassah Mount Scopus Medical Center in Jerusalem after news got out that the hospital was treating a member of Hamas’s “Nukhba force.”
Nukhba terrorists were one of the leading forces in Hamas’s attacks and atrocities on Oct. 7, during which some 1,200 people were murdered, thousands were wounded and 253 were taken as hostages.
Following a call by Hajaj for people to mobilize in protest, Hadassah tried to close the entrance to its intensive-care unit, covering the glass door with an Israeli flag to prevent protesters from locating the terrorist.
In video footage of the incident, Hajaj can be seen arguing with medical staff and security outside a hospital room, which was guarded by at least two armed soldiers, before being escorted off the premises. “Is this where the terrorist son of a bitch is hospitalized? Is the terrorist hospitalized here?” he shouts, asking security guards to “take the terrorist out of here, not us.”
In response to the uproar, the Hamas terrorist was said to have been transferred on Wednesday night from the Jerusalem hospital to the Sde Teiman base in southern Israel, which is being used to detain security prisoners, including those who require medical treatment.
According to official figures, at least 25 Palestinian terrorists have been treated in Israeli hospitals since Oct. 7, some of whom have been treated alongside Israeli soldiers wounded while fighting in the Gaza Strip.
In October, fans of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer club tried to break into the emergency room of Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer following reports that terrorists were being treated there.
In response to the incident, then-Health Minister Moshe Arbel instructed all public hospitals to stop treating Hamas terrorists.
However, in December, a Palestinian terrorist captured by Israeli soldiers in Gaza was admitted to a Petach Tikvah hospital for surgery. The terrorist was reportedly wounded during an exchange of fire.
