Former Managing Director of Al Jazeera Takes Down Allegations of IDF Rapes in Shifa Hospital

Sunday night, Abu Hilalah, a former managing director for Qatari news site Al Jazeera, claimed the network had published false information alleging Israeli soldiers committed sexual assault in Gaza City’s Shifa hospital.

The news story follows a woman named Jamila al-Hissi, who claims to have been trapped in the hospital for six days. In the report, she says soldiers “raped women, kidnapped women, executed women, and pulled dead bodies from under the rubble to unleash their dogs on them.”

The IDF’s Arabic spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Avichai Adraee, denied the accusation due to the lack of evidence. He points out that the woman may have not even called from the medical complex, and simply lied to garner attention.

In Hilalah’s retraction, he wrote on X that al-Hissi,, “It was revealed through Hamas investigations that the story of the rape of women in #مستشفى_الشفاء was fabricated. Of course, the enemy did not hesitate to commit the crime of genocide.
The woman who spoke about rape justified her exaggeration and incorrect talk by saying that the goal was to arouse the nation’s fervor and brotherhood! As if more than thirty thousand martyrs, ninety thousand wounded, about a million displaced people, and comprehensive destruction were not enough!”