Tunnels under hospitals in Gaza: US intelligence

Brut India

Days after Israeli raids on Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital, US intelligence released fresh findings.

Transcript

00:00Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad uses some hospitals in the Gaza Strip as a way

00:07to conceal and support their military operations and hold hostages.

00:11They have tunnels underneath these hospitals.

00:30The president said yesterday that hospitals in Gaza must be protected.

00:49Is the U.S. telling Israel not to attack hospitals or to shift the way it is operating at these

00:54sites?

00:55And then second, do you have any conclusive intelligence that these hospitals are legitimate

01:00military targets?

01:02So we've been very clear with, I think you've seen in the readouts that the secretary has

01:07had with Minister Gallant, that we believe that the protection of innocent civilians

01:13is of course not only a priority, but it must be upheld.

01:18And so you've seen in our readouts time and time again, that is something that the secretary

01:23continues to emphasize with Minister Gallant in all of his calls.

01:26And you've seen that from the, not just this department, but across this administration.

01:31I think what Jake Sullivan said yesterday is exactly what we keep reiterating to our

01:39Israeli counterparts, is that we don't want to see a firefight in a hospital.

01:43We absolutely believe that hospitals should be places where people seeking medical treatment

01:51and attention need to be, and those places should be protected.

01:55But you have to remember that, and we do have information that Hamas and the Palestinian

02:03Islamic Jihad uses some hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including the Al-Shifa Hospital, as

02:11a way to conceal and support their military operations and hold hostages.

02:16They have tunnels underneath these hospitals.

02:18And so Hamas and PIJ members operate a command and control node from Al-Shifa Hospital in

02:24Gaza City.

02:25They have weapons stored there and are prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation

02:31against the facility.

02:32So this is, I'm just telling you what we as the intelligence community assesses is happening

02:40in Gaza City, how Hamas is using these hospitals to operate.

02:44But absolutely, we do not want to see a firefight in a hospital where there are innocent civilians.

02:49You don't have any forces on the ground, right?

02:52That's right.

02:53So I take it this intelligence assessment is gathered based on information provided

02:56by Israel?

02:57Sorry, what I just read out?

03:00That's from our intelligence community.

03:01So did you have any assets inside Gaza Intelligence Community?

03:05We have no assets or boots on the ground in Gaza.

03:08There's no gathering on the ground about this.

03:13So you have no one entering the hospitals to verify this information, right?

03:18We have no boots on the ground in Gaza.

03:22How was that assessment, how did you conclude that assessment based on information received

03:28from your Israeli counterparts?

03:29Well, I'm not going to get into more specifics on how our intelligence is collected.

03:34What I can tell you is there are multiple agencies, as you know, here within the department

03:38and across the administration.

03:40Multiple agencies that collect and assess and analyze intelligence, but I'm not going

03:45to go into any further details on how that intelligence is gathered.

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