US official says Hamas has a command center under Al-Shifa Hospital

CNN
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A US official familiar with US intelligence says Hamas has a leadership complex under its leadership Al-Shifa HospitalIt uses its own fuel, and its fighters regularly congregate in and around Gaza’s largest hospital.

This information comes after statements made on Sunday by a senior White House official that Hamas is using hospitals and civilian facilities.

“You can see even from open source reporting that Hamas is using hospitals, along with a lot of other civilian facilities, to command and control, store weapons, and house its fighters,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told CNN. State of the Union. “Without going into this specific hospital or this specific allegation, this is Hamas’ record, historically and in this conflict.”

Israel insists that it is justified in carrying out military action around the hospital, despite criticism from the United Nations and other international organizations. The Israeli government announced that it had established evacuation corridors, and called for the evacuation of civilians, in addition to providing fuel.

Hamas and hospital officials denied accusations that the hospital was being used as a command center.

The news that US intelligence assessments appear to support Israel’s claims comes as global attention is focused on the fighting around the hospital and reports indicate that several patients, including children, have died in what the hospital director described as “catastrophic” conditions. .

The director of the medical center, Dr. Muhammad Abu Salamiya, told CNN on Monday: “There is no longer water, food and milk for children and infants… The situation in the hospital is catastrophic.”

But Israel insisted that patients could be evacuated from the hospital.

“There is no reason why we can’t get the patients out of there, instead of allowing Hamas to use it as a command center for terrorism, for the missiles that they launch against Israel, for the terrorist tunnels that they use to kill Israeli civilians.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with Dana Bash on CNN’s State of the Union.

Netanyahu added that Israel “deals with caution when it comes to hospitals.” But we will also not grant immunity to terrorists.”

The CIA declined to comment. CNN did not review the intelligence information mentioned by the American official.

Dr. Munir al-Barsh, director-general of the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, said on Monday that medical staff at Shifa Hospital had rejected the evacuation order issued by the Israeli military because they feared about 700 patients would die if left behind.

“The problem is not the doctors, but the patients. If they are left, they will die, and if they are transported, they will die on the way. This is the problem. We are talking about 700 patients,” Al-Barsh told CNN on Monday.

He added: “There has been no response yet from doctors, but some of the displaced people and their families have already left.”

The World Health Organization says that Al-Shifa Hospital has been without electricity for three days. “Unfortunately, the hospital no longer operates as a hospital,” she said.