On his first day in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump made a decisive move, announcing the United States’ intent to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO). His executive order pointed to the agency’s botched response to the COVID-19 pandemic, its troubling susceptibility to Chinese political pressure, and the outsized financial burden it places on American taxpayers. But beyond these high-profile failures lies a quieter, more insidious scandal: the WHO’s systematic effort to obscure Hamas’ exploitation of hospitals in the Gaza Strip. This travesty demands far louder condemnation.
The evidence of Hamas’ commandeering of Gaza’s medical infrastructure is overwhelming and beyond dispute. The terrorist organization has transformed hospitals into command centers, weapons stockpiles, and active combat zones—an abuse so blatant it defies denial. Yet, the WHO and its Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, have churned out hundreds of public statements and social media posts decrying Israel’s supposed “assault” on Gaza’s healthcare system. Ghebreyesus has taken his advocacy to the loftiest stages—the UN Security Council, Lebanon, and Qatar—without ever acknowledging the well-documented allegations of Hamas’ infiltration. The WHO clings to a narrative that casts Gaza’s hospitals as innocent civilian sanctuaries unjustly targeted by Israeli forces. The WHO went even further and delivered supplies to terrorist headquarters. This isn’t mere oversight or diplomatic tiptoeing; it’s active complicity in a deadly charade.
Hamas’ exploitation of hospitals isn’t new—it’s a long-standing, grim reality. During the 2009 Israel-Hamas war, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) discovered that Hamas had shuttered entire sections of al-Shifa hospital, repurposing them as its operational headquarters. Dave Harden, who served as USAID mission director in the Palestinian territories, posted in November 2023 that during his tenure in 2014, it was “broadly suspected/understood” that al-Shifa functioned as Hamas’ base of operations. A Dutch journalist went further, claiming to have personally observed Hamas fighters inside the hospital, adding that “everyone in Gaza, including UN staff,” was fully aware of its dual purpose. The accounts of released Israeli hostages paint an even bleaker picture. Maya Regev described how Hamas terrorists dragged her to a Gaza hospital, where they tortured her and performed surgery on her leg without anesthetics. Yarden Roman-Gat and Mia Shem both recounted being hidden in and beneath medical facilities during their captivity. British-Israeli hostage Emily Damari reported that her surgeon at al-Shifa—who introduced himself as “Dr. Hamas”—operated on her without pain relief, a chilling testament to the hospital’s true masters.
The corroboration keeps piling up. In November 2023, White House spokesman John Kirby publicly confirmed Hamas’ use of al-Shifa as a command hub. Between March and April 2024, the IDF executed a meticulously targeted operation at the hospital, apprehending approximately 500 terrorists and 400 suspects while eliminating 200 others. Among the dead was Faiq al-Mabhouh, a senior figure in Hamas’ internal security apparatus. Yet, as Israeli forces dismantled this terror stronghold, Ghebreyesus took to X with a sanctimonious rebuke: “Hospitals should never be battlegrounds. We are terribly worried about the situation at Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, which is endangering health workers, patients and civilians.” On April 6, 2024, the WHO spearheaded a multi-agency UN mission to survey al-Shifa’s devastation, producing a report that described it as “an empty shell.” Strikingly, the word “Hamas” is absent from the document. Readers are left with no clue as to who Israel was fighting or why the hospital had been besieged in the first place. This isn’t sloppy reporting—it’s a deliberate erasure of the truth.
The WHO’s pattern of obfuscation repeats with Kamal Adwan hospital. Between October 2024 and January 2025, Ghebreyesus and his agency posted at least sixteen times on X, condemning Israeli military actions there with escalating outrage. On November 25, 2024, he called the continued attacks “deplorable”; on December 9, he declared them “unacceptable.” Meanwhile, the IDF’s operations at Kamal Adwan yielded over 240 captured Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists—some of whom participated in the October 7 massacre. In released interrogation footage, a member of Hamas’ elite Nukhba forces detailed how Palestinian terrorist factions exploited the hospital as a “safe zone,” banking on its presumed immunity from Israeli strikes. Fox News reported in January 2025 that several detained terrorists confessed Israeli hostages had been held at Kamal Adwan at various points.
Tthe WHO has relentlessly demanded the release of the hospital’s director, Hussan Abu Safiya, without mentioning that he’s a Hamas colonel arrested on suspicion of terrorism. Far from a neutral civilian facility, Kamal Adwan was classified as a military hospital by Hamas’ own Military Medical Services Directorate, with social media posts from its opening touting its readiness to serve “military personnel in the Ministry of Interior and National Security.” A Kurdish doctor who volunteered there and the hospital’s former director—following his arrest and questioning by Israel—have both confirmed Hamas’ entrenched presence.
Hamas’ transformation of hospitals into terrorist bastions and dungeons for Israeli captives is a flagrant violation of international law. It lays bare the group’s cynical cruelty, perverting institutions meant to preserve life into instruments of death and suffering. This tactic dovetails with its broader strategy of using Palestinian civilians as human shields, fully aware that the international community has little stomach for Palestinian casualties and will reflexively blame Israel for every loss. When Hamas launched its genocidal October 7 attack on Israeli towns and villages, it counted on the ensuing destruction in Gaza to trigger global condemnation of Israel. To that end, Hamas routinely manipulates casualty figures—underreporting the deaths of its fighters while amplifying the toll on women and children—to bolster its propaganda.
In the immediate aftermath of that barbaric assault, Hamas’ allies concocted the libel that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Central to their cases at the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court is the accusation that Israel is waging a campaign against Gaza’s hospitals. The WHO has proven a willing partner in this deception, consistently concealing Hamas’ abuses and misrepresenting Israel’s counter-terrorism efforts. Through hundreds of public statements and its provision of aid supplies, it has effectively aided the murder, abduction, and torture of Israeli citizens while denying Hamas’ role—a betrayal of professional and medical ethics on an unforgivable scale.
President Trump has taken a principled stand by charting America’s exit from the WHO, a body that has lost its moral compass. Israel and the United States’ democratic allies must follow his example. Israel is seriously considering withdrawing, and the Knesset has recently held a hearing on the subject. The WHO’s collaboration with Hamas isn’t just a failure of leadership—it’s a stain on the very ideals it claims to uphold. The time for accountability is now.
First published in The National Review (“The World Health Organization is Covering for Hamas”, March 24, 2025)
