On Monday, Jake Sullivan was asked about the need to protect hospitals in Gaza.
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00:00 Yeah.
00:01 Thanks, Jake.
00:02 You said yesterday, and the President said just now in the Oval Office, that hospitals
00:05 in Gaza need to be protected.
00:09 Do you believe that the Israelis have received that message, and have they had any response?
00:14 So first, what the President has just said and what I've said is that we do not want
00:19 to see firefights in hospitals.
00:20 We want to see patients protected.
00:22 We want to see hospitals protected.
00:24 We have spoken with the Israeli government about this, and they have said they share
00:27 that view, that they do not want to see firefights in hospitals, and you've heard from IDF spokespeople
00:33 stating things along those lines.
00:35 The Israeli government has also told us that they are prepared to provide fuel to hospitals
00:40 to ensure that they can continue to operate, and that for certain hospitals, they actually
00:44 have not been able to be in communication with the people who are actually running the
00:49 hospitals.
00:50 So that's something we will continue to work on, but the position of the United States
00:52 on this matter is clear.
00:54 Hospitals should be protected.
00:56 Hospitals should be able to run effectively so that medical care can be given to patients.
01:00 And finally, to the extent people need to be evacuated from one hospital to another
01:05 hospital in order to ensure the continuation of care, evacuation routes have to be safe,
01:11 and the Israeli government has told us as recently as today that there are and will
01:16 continue to be evacuation routes for people leaving hospital compounds.
01:21 So these are positions that for us are straightforward.
01:24 They are clear.
01:25 We have a constructive discussion with the Israeli government on this, and I believe
01:29 that they have indicated they hold similar positions on these issues.
01:32 Now, as for what happens on the ground, you know, in a given hour, on a given day, we
01:36 can't react to every individual report.
01:39 We can simply continue to state our position and continue to consult with the Israeli government
01:44 to ensure that they are doing their best to fulfill their stated position on this.