Pakistan takes ‘serious exception’ to Israeli politician misusing Shifa hospital's image in social media video

ISLAMABAD: Foreign office spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri has said Pakistan had taken serious exception to an Israeli far-right politician posting a video on social media showing the image of a hospital in Pakistan while claiming it was a Hamas headquarter and “the largest medical complex in Gaza.”
Pakistan has launched a diplomatic onslaught since last month in support of Palestine and to mobilize international support against Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza strip. The attacks killed over 240 people in the Palestinian territory between May 10 and May 21 when a cease-fire was announced.
Israeli far-right politician and former war minister Naftali Bennett posted a video on May 20 showing an image of a hospital that he said was the “largest medical complex in Gaza” and a Hamas headquarter from where the group was “conducting terror actions against Israel.”
Social media users were quick to point out that the photo was of Shifa International Hospital in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.
“We have seen the statement by Israel’s former war minister and we believe that it is casual misjudgment at best, and deliberate misrepresentation at worst,” foreign office spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhari told Arab News. “We also take serious exception to the fact that a Pakistani building was misquoted in the statement.”
Prime Minister Imran Khan’s special representative on the Middle East, Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi, called Bennett’s video a deliberate attempt to mislead the world.
“Israel is frustrated due to Pakistan’s active role in highlighting the Palestinian issue and Israeli atrocities infant of the whole world,” Ashrafi told Arab News. “It is a deliberate attempt to mislead and deceive the world as Israel has destroyed actual health facilities in Gaza. We condemn this attempt to malign Pakistan.”
Ashrafi added: “Pakistan will continue it’s support for the Palestinian people till the formation of an independent Palestinian state with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.”
Shuja Rauf, a spokesperson for Shifa, said it was “clear that the image of Shifa International Hospital (SIH) Islamabad has been shown mistakenly. SIH is Pakistan’s leading private sector hospital, accredited with Joint Commission, United States. The hospital has been providing quality health care services to Pakistanis for over 28 years. We accordingly emphasize to remove the said visual.”