Israel has repeatedly defended striking Gazan hospitals on the basis that Hamas is using them as military bases. Both Israel and those investigating the conflict have failed to verify the accusation, but it has given media organisations in the West a crumb of a justification to cling to. At this point in the genocide, anyone offering any sort of excuse for Israel’s actions looks depraved, but that’s never stopped the British media in the past. Thankfully, people like Nick Maynard are pushing back on places like Sky News:

“the IDF say they attack hospitals because Hamas use them as areas to fight from…”@maynard_nick: “Its disappointing to hear that this is still being raised by the media in our country… there has been no credible evidence to support those claims” pic.twitter.com/Ri7oMJxZRX

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) October 7, 2025

Crying wolf – and Sky News amplifying it

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is investigating Israel for the crime of genocide. In December 2024, they described Israel’s allegations of Hamas fighters operating in hospitals as being “grossly exaggerated”; they also said that “lies being spoken” are making it impossible to quantify the claims, noting:

We need to be able to demonstrate very clearly what the level of military presence was, if at all, in these hospitals because I think we’ve been misled about that in the press

At the time, New Arab reported that 35 of Gaza’s hospitals (around half) were ‘destroyed or non-functioning’; a further 17 were ‘partially functioning’.

The United Nations (UN) reported on 2 October:

Currently less than 14 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain partially functional, while less than one third of pre-conflict rehabilitation services are operating, with several facing imminent closure

In the video above, the Sky News host notes:

Now, the IDF say they attack hospitals because Hamas use them as areas to fight from. They have bases within, underneath. From your time there, did you see Hamas fighters operating from medical facilities?

The man he was speaking to was surgeon Nick Maynard, who responded:

No, I didn’t. And it’s disappointing to hear that this is still being raised by the media in our country.

He’s right, it is incredibly disappointing; it just isn’t surprising.

Given that the UN has judged Israel is enacting a genocide, you’d think we could stop giving credence to the lies of the people committing this grave crime against humanity, and yet here we are.

Maynard continued:

The Israeli military claim this, but you will know, as would all other media outlets know, that there has been no verifiable, no credible evidence to support those claims. I have borne witness, as indeed many other healthcare workers have, repeatedly over the last two years, that none of us have witnessed any evidence of Hamas militant activity in the hospitals.

And I will state again that the evidence from the Israeli spokesman is lacking. There is no verifiable, no credible evidence to support those claims.

Medical professionals in Gaza

Maynard has served as a volunteer surgeon at Nasser hospital, writing in July this year:

Nasser hospital is the last major functioning hospital in southern Gaza, but we’re operating at breaking point, reeling from previous attacks and overwhelmed by mass casualties, all while facing shortages of everything. Netanyahu’s systematic destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system has funnelled desperate medical needs into this single facility while directly targeting healthcare workers and patients. Just this week, one of our dear theatre nurses was killed in his tent along with his three small children.

I want to be clear – what is being done to Palestinians in Gaza is barbaric and entirely preventable. I cannot believe we have come to a point where the world is watching as the people of Gaza are forced to endure starvation and gunfire, all while food and medical aid sits across the border just miles away from them.

He added:

The UK government’s continued complicity in Israel’s atrocities is unconscionable, and I do not want to spend another day operating on children who have been shot and starved by a military our government supports. History will judge not just those who committed these crimes, but those who stood by and watched.

From inside Nasser hospital, I am telling you: this is deliberate. This is preventable. And this must stop now.

In July 2024, the Canary published an account from Mark Perlmutter (vice president of the International College of Surgeons), who said:

I’ve seen more shredded children in just my first week…missing body parts, being crushed by buildings, the greatest majority, or bomb explosions, the next greatest majority.

Perlmutter also said:

All of the disasters I’ve seen, combined – 40 mission trips, 30 years, Ground Zero, earthquakes, all of that combined – doesn’t equal the level of carnage that I saw against civilians in just my first week in Gaza.

Disturbingly, he added:

I’ve seen more incinerated children than I’ve ever seen in my entire life

Clearly, the lies are so big because the crimes are so grave.

A genocide on truth, with Sky News aiding and abetting it

Israel and their supporters in the Western establishment – like Sky News – are in a constant battle to have people disbelieve the evidence before their own eyes.

While it’s exhausting and dispiriting, we all need to constantly push back against it. The weight of public opinion has shifted; we now need to ensure it never shifts back.

Featured image via Sky News

By Willem Moore

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