White House says militants operating out of Gaza’s hospitals
It’s the first time the US has commented on Hamas’s use of hospitals but Washington is still opposed to Israel conducting airstrikes against al-Shifa.
The White House said Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad are using hospitals in Gaza, including Al-Shifa, for their operations but the US remains opposed to Israel conducting airstrikes against the besieged hospital amid a widening humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory.
John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT) told reporters travelling aboard Air Force One that Hamas and Islamic Jihad “use some hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including Al-Shifa and tunnels underneath them, to conceal and to support their military operations and to hold hostages”.
Kirby’s comments represented the first time the US has said that Hamas is operating out of the hospitals.
Kirby said Hamas and Islamic Jihad members operate a command-and-control node from Al-Shifa in Gaza City, have stored weapons there and the groups are prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation against that facility.
Kirby reiterated that the US doesn’t support striking the hospital from the air, adding, “we do not want to see a firefight in the hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people are simply trying to get the medical care that they deserve, not to be caught in a crossfire. Hospitals and patients must be protected.”
US officials, including those at the Pentagon, declined to say if the intelligence was conveyed by Israel or if it was based on an independent assessment. Kirby said the information came from “a variety of intelligence methods of our own,” and the administration was able to lower the level of classification of some of the information to share it publicly.
The release of this intelligence comes as the Biden administration is facing increasingly vocal dissent within its ranks about US military support for Israel as the war in Gaza claims more civilian lives, and as Israel appears prepared to move soon against the Al-Shifa hospital.
“We have given enough warning,” Elyon Levy, an Israeli government spokesman, wrote Tuesday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Al-Shifa hospital’s “protected status under international law has lapsed, and we are fully within our rights to counter Hamas’ belligerent military activities.”
As Israel’s military campaign expands, dissent has been building up within the Biden administration and on the streets of Washington. Earlier this month, tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators rallied in Washington calling for a ceasefire. There have also been protests on the other side of the war.
On Tuesday, thousands of demonstrators gathered on the National Mall in Washington to show support for Israel in its war with Hamas.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote to department staff on Monday to update them on the Biden administration’s push for humanitarian pauses in the conflict to aid civilians. The letter was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
“The anguish that comes with seeing the daily images of babies, children, elderly people, women and other civilians suffering in this crisis is wrenching,” Blinken wrote. “Far too many Palestinian civilians have died, ” he said, echoing comments he made at the end of his trip through the region and Asia in recent days.
Blinken’s memo follows a month of concern from some in the State Department and other federal agencies that has spilled over into so-called dissent cables, a channel used at the department for internally criticising official US policy, officials say.
“I also know that some people in the Department may disagree with approaches we are taking or have views on what we can do better,” Blinken wrote. “We’ve organised forums in Washington to hear from you, and urged managers and teams to have candid discussions at posts around the world precisely so we can hear your feedback and ideas.”
The White House said Tuesday that the National Security Council’s lead Middle Eastern official, Brett McGurk, had departed on a trip that would take him to the region and to Israel to “discuss Israel’s security needs, the imperative of protecting civilians in the course of military operations, as well as ongoing efforts to secure the release of hostages.”
President Biden, asked about efforts to free American hostages being held in Gaza, told reporters Tuesday morning: “I’ve been talking with people involved every single day. I believe it’s going to happen. I don’t want to get into detail.”
Since the Hamas assault on Israel on October 7 – which targeted Israeli civilian communities, a music festival and army bases and killed 1200 people including 859 civilians, according to Israeli authorities – Israel has waged a campaign of airstrikes and ground operations it says are aimed at eliminating Hamas.
Health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave say that more than 11,000 have been killed in Gaza since the war began. The figures don’t distinguish between civilian and combatant casualties.
The US has long supported Israel with military aid and is providing additional weapons to the current fight, in addition to providing diplomatic support to the Israeli military’s effort to destroy Hamas.
While most Republicans back Israel strongly, the administration is facing pressure from some Democratic lawmakers concerned about the civilian toll as well as protests from a swath of Americans worried about what they see as a humanitarian catastrophe.
On the other side, supporters of Israel, including top Biden administration officials, say Hamas’s brutal attack against civilians on Oct. 7 and its apparent use of civilians as human shields justifies an Israeli attack on the militant group’s strongholds in Gaza.
The Wall Street Journal
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