U.S. spy businesses imagine that Hamas and one other Palestinian group combating Israel used Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza to command forces and maintain some hostages, in line with new American intelligence declassified on Tuesday.
The hospital was the main target of a big Israel Protection Forces effort in November to take management of the ability, an operation that got here below intense worldwide scrutiny and criticism.
Israeli officers mentioned Hamas had constructed an unlimited advanced below the hospital, making it a authentic navy goal. However critics mentioned the navy operation successfully minimize off and shut down an important a part of Gaza’s medical community with little proof that Hamas was utilizing the hospital as a command submit.
A senior U.S. intelligence official mentioned on Tuesday that the American authorities continued to imagine that Hamas used the hospital advanced and websites beneath it to train command and management actions, retailer weapons and maintain “at the least just a few hostages.”
American intelligence businesses obtained info that Hamas fighters had evacuated the advanced days earlier than the multiday operation, destroying paperwork and electronics as they left, the senior intelligence official mentioned.
After the operation, the Israeli navy took reporters to a shaft on the advanced resulting in a tunnel community. Later, the navy confirmed the tunnels beneath the hospital.
White Home officers on the time backed the Israeli evaluation. “We’ve got info that confirms that Hamas is utilizing that specific hospital for a command and management node,” John F. Kirby, a Nationwide Safety Council spokesman, mentioned on Nov. 14.
Within the weeks because the operation, information organizations have continued to lift questions about Hamas’s presence on the hospital. And well being and humanitarian organizations have criticized the Israeli operation. A humanitarian staff lead by the World Well being Group, which visited Al-Shifa instantly after Israeli forces stormed the hospital, referred to as it a “dying zone.”
However the American intelligence evaluation has remained agency that the hospital was utilized by Hamas. The brand new intelligence represents essentially the most present American evaluation, officers mentioned.
The advanced was utilized by each Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to command forces combating in opposition to Israel, in line with the intelligence.
Whereas the spy businesses offered no visible proof, a U.S. official mentioned they have been assured of their evaluation as a result of it was primarily based on info collected by Israel and America’s personal intelligence, gathered independently.
Some had hoped that the operation to take the hospital might consequence within the rescue of a few of the hostages taken by Palestinian fighters throughout their Oct. 7 assault on Israel. No hostages have been rescued, however Israeli officers discovered the our bodies of two hostages at or close to the advanced, officers have mentioned.
The brand new American intelligence evaluation says the Israeli evaluation was at the least partially appropriate that some hostages have been held at or below the advanced. However these hostages seem to have been moved as Hamas evacuated.
