From human shield to health facilities: How Pakistan & its terror networks are mimicking Hamas

As the tensions between India and Pakistan continue to escalate, certain commonalities are emerging between how terror camps are operating in Pakistan and how Hamas runs its business in Gaza. The Operation Sindoor by Indian forces and the assessments that followed it made these commonalities even more apparent.

In the early hours of Wednesday, the Indian Forces launched a 25-minute-long mission, codenamed Operation Sindoor, honouring the women survivors of the Pahalgam terror attack who were forced to witness the horror as terrorists shot dead their male partners.

The counter-offensive that came after giving Pakistan a fortnight to take measures against the outfit responsible for the massacre was seen as a response to the barbaric killing of 25 tourists and local pony-ride operator on April 22. Pakistan came under India’s radar after digital footprints of the terrorists involved in the attack were traced to a Pakistan-based terror group.

The cash-strapped nation’s own Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has admitted that the country has a history of supporting, funding and fostering terrorism, describing it as doing the “dirty work of the US and the West”.

Under Operation Sindoor, the Indian military targeted nine terror camps in Pakistan. These terror complexes are operated by three prime terror groups still “flourishing” in Pakistan - Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), and Hizbul Mujahideen. When more details about these terror camps came out, there was one major commonality established between Hamas operatives and Pakistani terrorists.

That commonality was “using civilians as humans shield,” here’s why such parallels were drawn.

Proximity between terror camps and hospitals

Pak terror camps near hospitals

Two of the nine camps that were targeted under Operation Sindoor were near hospitals and health sectors. For example, the Sarjal / Tehra Kalan facility of JeM was located inside the premises of a Health Centre in Norwal District, Punjab (Pakistan). The Indian authorities noted that the terror backers, particularly the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of the Pakistan Army, facilitated the setting up of the camp, and the health facility was used to hide/conceal terror infrastructure.

Many such health facilities are being used by JeM and HM in Pakistan, and most of them have been funded by the country’s corrupt establishment. Not only this, JeM terrorist commanders Mohammad Adnan Ali, known by the alias of Doctor Adnan, operate in that health facility.

The terror group also has tunnels for infiltration into India’s borders, along with other hospital infrastructure as a shield, a tactic used by Hamas in Gaza.

The Tehra Kalan facility is not the only camp used by Pakistani terrorists. In Operation Sindoor, Indian forces also struck HM’s Mehmoona Joya Facility in Sialkot. The complex is also located near Kotli Bhutta Government Hospital in the Head Marala area of the Sialkot District of Punjab, Pakistan. The construction of the camp also got backing from the ISI.

The case of Al-Shifa

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war following the October 7 surprise attack by Hamas in Southern Israel, Tel Aviv has been claiming that Hamas use civilians as “human shields”. This allegation found some ground after a massive tunnel network was discovered beneath the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza.

The Israeli Defence Force noted that the tunnel was found beneath the surgical building of the Al-Shifa hospital and ran to a random shack nearby. It is pertinent to note that the Al-Shifa Hospital is Gaza’s largest medical facility.

A New York Times report later revealed that Hamas used the hospital for cover, stored weapons inside it and maintained a hardened tunnel beneath the complex that was supplied with water, power and air-conditioning. As per the classified Israeli intelligence documents, inside the tunnel, Israeli soldiers found underground bunkers, living quarters and a room that appeared to be wired for computers and communications equipment.

Operating in tunnels under civilian infrastructure made the innocents vulnerable to Israeli strikes and raids. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which helped organise the evacuation of 31 infants from Al-Shifa, five premature babies died at the hospital due to a lack of electricity and fuel as the hospital braced for an Israeli raid.

The idea of a propaganda video

Hours after Operation Sindoor, Pakistan cried foul and said that the Indians killed civilians; they went ahead and gave the terrorists killed in the attack “ state funerals ”. While holding up a photograph showing uniformed Pakistani Army and police personnel praying behind the coffins of the slain terrorists, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri condemned Pakistan for spreading a false narrative.

“If only civilians were killed in these attacks, I wonder what message this picture sends to all of you. This is the question that is worth asking. It’s also odd that the funerals of civilians are carried out with the coffins being draped in Pakistani flags and state honours being accorded,” he said.

Mistri rejected Pakistan’s claim of civilian casualties and stressed: “As far as we are concerned, the individuals eliminated at these facilities were terrorists. Giving terrorists state funerals may be a practice in Pakistan, but it doesn’t seem to make much sense to us”.

Hamas has used similar tactics as well. But with a twist. When Hamas was releasing hostages from captivity during a brief ceasefire with Israel, they made a big spectacle out of it. The Palestinian group prodded their gaunt captives to give short speeches and made them thank militants who had held them captive for 16 months.

While Hamas wanted to give the impression that they were peaceful to the hostages. Most of these hostages later shared their plight and mentioned how they were abused and tortured in captivity. Not only this, the malnourished conditions of some of the hostages that were released also reflected the horrors Hamas unleashed upon these hostages.

Pakistan’s military is using civilian airspace

While addressing the MEA press briefing on Friday, Wing Commander Vyomika Singh said that civil airlines were flying between Karachi and Lahore, noting that Pakistan was using airliners “as shields”. Pakistan did not close its civil airspace despite launching a failed unprovoked drone and missile attack on 7 May at 08:30 hours in the evening. Pakistan is using a civil airliner as a shield, knowing fully well that its attack on India would elicit a swift air defence response," she said at the presser.

“This is not safe for the unsuspecting civil airliners including the international flights which were flying near IB between India and Pakistan. The screenshot we just showed, it shows the data of the application flight radar 24 during a high air defence alert situation in the Punjab sector. As you have seen, the airspace on the Indian side is absolutely devoid of civil air traffic due to our declared closure.”

“However, civil airlines are flying the air route between Karachi and Lahore…Indian Air Force demonstrated considerable restraint in its response, thus ensuring the safety of international civil carriers,” she said.

All these connections indicate that instead of whitewashing their image, neither Pakistani terrorists nor the establishment paid heed to civilians.