Dem Candidate Dismissed Hamas Claims at Gaza Hospital
The left told us that Hamas does not use Gaza hospitals as military bases. They called it Israeli propaganda. They called it a lie. They were wrong, and one of the loudest voices propagating this line is now asking American voters to send it to Congress.
Dr. Adam Hamawy is an Army veteran, plastic surgeon, and Democratic candidate for Congress in New Jersey’s 12th District. It also turns out to be a case study in what happens when ideology gets ahead of reality and no one bothers to ask tough questions.
Hamawy spent three weeks in the European Hospital in Gaza in May 2024. When he returned home, he not only shared what he had seen. He became a go-to media source for media outlets eager to reject Israeli claims that Hamas was using hospitals as command centers. He said it was a “completely harmless civilian hospital with no tunnels underneath.”
At a Rowan University event co-hosted by the Muslim Student Association and Students for Justice in Palestine, he went further:
“I didn’t see any fighters. I didn’t see any guns in the hospital, there was no one I could identify as a fighter. There were certainly no underground tunnels, no command base there.”
He did not present this as a limited observation. He presented it as a consensus.
“It’s not just me, it’s unanimous,” he said, pointing to other doctors who had worked in Gaza hospitals.
The media followed.
It was a confident, sweeping statement, exactly the kind that amplifies when it fits the narrative. He had the qualifications. He was a doctor. He was an army veteran. He had been there. It had weight.
This was also false.
In May 2025, Israel killed Hamas military leader Mohammed Sinwar in a tunnel beneath the emergency department of the European Hospital.
Learn more: UN agencies block US investigation as Hamas links surface during review of aid programs
His body was found in an approximately eight-meter underground passage that Israeli officials said was part of a wider tunnel network in southern Gaza, along with four other senior officials, who were killed alongside him, according to Israeli officials.
The Israeli military says Israeli hostages were likely held in this same tunnel system while Hamawy worked in the building above.
A Golani major who led the operation put it bluntly:
“We found a military base under a hospital, period.”
Hamas denies these claims and some media outlets note that full independent verification is not possible. This warning deserves to be acknowledged. But the journalists were physically taken into the tunnel and described what they found: mattresses, maps, operational plans, explosives, weapons. The smell of death was still present three weeks after the strike.
Hamawy is now running for Congress with the endorsement of Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN-05) and the support of several groups aligned with the progressive wing of the party. His campaign did not respond to questions about his past statements.
Was he lying? Maybe not. Hamas has long hidden infrastructure from the people who live and work above it, and a doctor working in a hospital ward had no reason to look for tunnels eight meters below. This is a legitimate argument, as far as it goes. What’s harder to explain is certainty. Hamawy did not say that he did not see any tunnels. He said there wasn’t any. He didn’t cover himself. He didn’t say “not to my knowledge” or “not in the areas in which I have worked.” He made a radical statement, attached the names of other doctors and repeated it publicly.
He is now asking voters to trust that judgment on matters far more important than what was happening under a hospital in Khan Younis. Voters in New Jersey’s 12th District can decide how certain it is.
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