US claims Hamas command center is located under al-Shifa hospital in the Israel-Gaza battle

 US claims Hamas command center is located under al-Shifa hospital in the Israel-Gaza battle

According to US intelligence, Hamas has a command center in Gaza City under the al-Shifa hospital.

According to national security spokesperson John Kirby, the gang was ready for an Israeli assault and had gathered weapons there.

For the first time, the US has formally endorsed Israel, its key ally, in its accusations that Hamas conceals its bases in hospitals. It is denied by Hamas.

The announcement was made as pressure from across the world mounted on Israel to rescue citizens imprisoned in hospitals.

UN Secretary-General Joseph Biden said that Israel "must act within international law," while UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stated that al-Shifa Hospital "must be protected" from the fierce fighting around the complex.

In recent days, the main hospital in Gaza, al-Shifa, has come to be the hub of combat. There are reportedly thousands of individuals seeking refuge there.

According to Mr. Kirby, the US had data derived from many sources that demonstrated Hamas and Islamic Jihad had concealed military activities and held captives in the Gaza Strip by using hospitals and tunnels underneath them. accomplished.

The US government has previously denied confirming that it had its own sources for the information, instead citing open-source sources.

"Hamas and members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad operate a command along with oversight node through al-Shifa in Gaza City," he said.

"They have stockpiled armaments there and they are prepared to respond to an Israeli armed assault against that facility."

Mr. Kirby said that the fact that "Hamas has established itself deeply within the civilian population" demonstrated how difficult the Israeli operation was.

"Clearly, we oppose airstrikes on hospitals and do not want to see shootings there when ill, defenseless, and innocent people are only attempting to get the treatment they are entitled to. Let's avoid being caught in the crossfire. Patients and hospitals ought to be safeguarded, he said.

"As we have made clear on a number of occasions Hamas's actions do not diminish Israel's responsibility for protecting civilians in Gaza, and this is clearly a thing about which we continue to have substantive discussions with our counterparts." Moving."

In response to the White House remarks on Tuesday, Hamas claimed in a statement obtained by the AFP news agency that Israel will use the evaluation from Washington to carry out a "brutal massacre" on hospitals, "destroying Gaza's healthcare system." Will do to provide the "green light" for such actions. Moving the Palestinians Out.

Numerous individuals, including at least three preterm newborns, have perished as a result of fuel, medication, and energy shortages, according to medical professionals in al-Shifa.

More than a hundred dead, he told the BBC, were buried in the courtyards, and anybody attempting to escape the property or even to walk between buildings ran the chance of dying due to the violence in the region. As.

Despite claims that Hamas is present in Gaza hospitals, Israel maintains that it has not shot directly at them. The US, UK, and EU have labeled Hamas as a terrorist organization, and the Israeli military has promised to destroy them in the Gaza Strip.

Israel made public a video on Monday that it said showed a Hamas stronghold located under the northern Gaza City Rantisi Children's Hospital.

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the IDF's top spokesperson, is heard in a six-minute video tagged "raw footage" stating that he is 200 meters away from Rantisi in a tunnel.

In the video, Hagari indicates what he claims are electrical connections proving solar panels are powering a bunker as well as a tunnel entrance that he thinks is "connected" to the hospital. Were donating.

Although no further proof of the command center's existence has been offered, an IDF spokeswoman said that the inquiry was still underway.

The video then shifts to what seems to be the subterranean chambers of Rantisi Hospital. A motorbike that he claims has gunshot damage and a stash of weaponry, including explosive belts and grenades, are indicated by him.

There are hints, according to Rear Admiral Hagari, that captives taken by Hamas during the organization's raid on Israel were being held in the basement.

A baby's feeding bottle is perched on a chair that is tethered to a rope under a control panel that reads "World Health Organization" in one image.

He gestures to a wall calendar in another room that shows the days that have passed since October 7, the day of the Hamas strike in southern Israel, in Arabic.

The calendar, according to Rear Admiral Hagari, depicts "changes of terrorists" when they were on watch in the chamber. According to him, the names and shift time were written down.

The term "Al-Aqsa flood"—Hamas's codename for the October 7 attacks—is used at the top of this text. But the Arabic words translate not into names but into the days of the week.

He adds later that the space has been styled with drapes to resemble a video studio. There is no similar backdrop pattern in any of the captive movies that Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas have made public.

Journalists from CNN were brought by the IDF to the location and the hospital, which was cleared on Friday. Since BBC News has not visited the location, it is unable to independently confirm any of Hagari's claims.

Israel's assertions, however, were met with a detailed response from Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry, which referred to them as a "theatrical farce".

It claimed that the subterranean area shown in the film served as an air raid bunker in addition to being utilized for administration and storage.

There were reportedly hundreds of these motorbikes in Gaza, and the armaments show was called staged.

According to the government, since Hamas abducted around 240 hostages and murdered 1,200 people in Israel on October 7, more than 11,000 people have died as a result of Israel's offensive against the organization.