(JNS) With plans for Gaza’s future dominating headlines, those mired in the details of the ongoing war are aware of claims that Hamas made extensive use of hospitals as terror bases. For them, there should be no surprise in learning that recently released Hamas documents, captured by the Israel Defense Forces, directly confirmed this systematic abuse.
But the details delineating the complicity of leading humanitarian groups, such as Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and the Red Cross, in these war crimes were largely unexpected and require urgent action.
The revelations indict many of the biggest human rights organizations and pose major challenges to Western countries, including Canada. For years, governments have been providing hundreds of millions of dollars annually to an aid industry that has grown cozy with terrorist regimes.
The declassified Hamas records, dated from early 2020 and recently published by NGO Monitor, the independent research institute that I head, clearly depict the terror group’s strategy of using medical facilities and health-care workers as shields. Hospitals, Hamas officials wrote, serve as places of “gathering for many commanders … in times of escalation.”
The documents warn Hamas commanders (i.e., terrorists) of the dangers posed by the presence of foreign medical professionals in hospital wings used as operational and communications centers for the organization. Fighters were told that foreigners, including doctors and other personnel, were to be removed “when there is a case of resistance leaders [present on the premises].” To prevent unauthorized contact, “medical members [of Hamas] from Gaza” would also be assigned to observe and “join incoming delegations.”
Hamas, the records reveal, also required considerable pre-approval procedures for arriving delegations sent by friendly NGOs. They were required to “submit a request … attached with CVs of the doctors, listing the need [of arrival].” And they could work only “in specific places, such as the outpatient department, the specialized departments and operations rooms,” but would be prohibited “from going inside the [main] hospital where [Hamas] is located.”
The list of organizations that look the other way begins with the most “highly respected” and influential groups. The International Red Cross, Hamas noted, “has chosen [to operate] in a wing inside Al-Shifa Hospital that is adjacent to the [Hamas] movement’s offices.” Similarly, according to the terror group’s documents, MSF was located in “the only room in Abu Yousef El-Najar Hospital that has a (safe) communication landline” belonging to Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades.
These are only two of the humanitarian institutions that cooperated with Hamas by confining themselves to specified areas inside Gaza hospital complexes, submitting the aforementioned lists of volunteers and staff to Hamas in advance, and complying with the requirements of the heinous terror group.
The abject moral failures are not limited to these organizations but directly linked to their donors, including governments that proclaim their adherence to ethical principles. Canadians, in particular, should be asking about the legality and morality of continued relationships with such NGOs. For example, MSF alone received $14 million from Canada in 2024.
However, the warning signs for Global Affairs Canada and the prime minister’s office were studiously ignored. In late 2023, MSF’s former secretary-general, Alain Destexhe, published a scathing report calling the group he once headed “an accomplice of Hamas.” He observed that “a significant proportion of its staff seem to share the Hamas point of view and support the terrorist attacks of 7 October,” and that the “proximity between some MSF staff and Hamas raises questions about possible links between MSF in Gaza and extremist groups.”
Another red flag was ignored when the treasurer of MSF’s Canadian branch resigned in March 2024, stating that MSF’s “claims to be independent, neutral and impartial” are “untrue.” “MSF Canada,” he declared, “failed to condemn Oct. 7 or correct false statements on social media about the conflict.”
Unfortunately, MSF is not the only example of ostensibly humanitarian-focused NGOs abusing Canadian tax dollars. Islamic Relief has faced US scrutiny for antisemitism; in 2020, its board resigned after its chairman lauded Hamas terrorists as “great men.” Germany, the Netherlands and other nations have already cut their funding, and various financial institutions have frozen or closed their accounts. But the Canadian tap remains open.
Beyond direct links to Hamas, NGO Monitor’s research reveals a wider pattern of anti-humanitarian behavior in the form of propaganda for the terror group. MSF and its peers regularly issue public condemnations of Israeli military actions against hospitals in Gaza, despite knowing the strictures under which they operated. Under international law, hospitals used as Hamas command centers lose their protected status. By participating actively in these demonization campaigns rather than criticizing Hamas, Destexhe lamented, MSF “failed in its humanitarian purpose and violated its own charter … .”
For these reasons and more, an independent review of Canadian policies toward NGOs that provide aid is long overdue. As a brighter future in the Middle East takes shape, Canada and other donor governments have the strategic opportunity and moral obligation to require transparency and accountability for any group receiving taxpayer funds and building the Gaza of tomorrow.
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