Biden charges Hamas with committing a “war crime” by running what Israel and the US assert to be a command node at the Gaza Hospital.

Biden charges Hamas with committing a “war crime” by running what Israel and the US assert to be a command node at the Gaza Hospital.

Operating what the US and Israel assert is a command node beneath the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, US President Joe Biden charged Hamas with a “war crime.”

Biden added that during his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday, he brought up the hazardous condition at the hospital, which is the biggest in Gaza.There is a situation where Hamas is hiding its military base and headquarters beneath a hospital, committing the first war crime. It is a fact, too. During a press conference on Wednesday, Biden informed the media that’s precisely what had happened.

Early on Wednesday morning, Israeli commandos raided Al-Shifa after claiming that Hamas was operating from tunnels beneath the large facility. Both hospital administrators and the militant group refuted this accusation.

I am unable to substantiate the assertions made by either party.

Israel’s military claimed to have discovered “military equipment used by Hamas,” but it did not provide any proof of the extensive tunnel network it said the militant organisation was using.Due to intense fighting, conditions at Al-Shifa, which is no longer thought to be operable due to fuel exhaustion, have rapidly deteriorated in recent days. Doctors have warned of a “catastrophic” situation for patients, staff, and displaced individuals who are trapped inside.

The raid on Wednesday has also drawn strong international criticism.

While acknowledging that the US has urged Israel to be “extremely cautious” in its targeting of Hamas in the region, Biden said that the action was warranted.We talked about how they had to use extreme caution. You are aware that there are a significant number of Hamas militants in your situation. Public statements from Hamas indicate that they intend to attack Israel once more, just as they did in the past.

The brutality of Hamas’ October 7 strikes in Israel was also mentioned by the president. “And so, the idea that they’re going to just stop and not do anything is not realistic,” he stated.He implied that Israeli forces are “bringing in incubators” and “other means to help the people in the hospital,” noting that precautions had been taken to keep medical professionals, nurses, and other staff members safe.

Biden stated to MJ Lee, Yes, he was fully convinced that Hamas was running a command centre beneath Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital based on intelligence he had seen, though he would not elaborate. An adviser to the prime minister stated that Israel has stated that it will provide more evidence to back up its claims of a Hamas command centre beneath Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital.

Not only Israel claims that Hamas established its terror network, fortifications, and central leadership under the Shifa hospital, Senior advisor to the Israeli prime minister, Mark Regev says that the US government, both at the White House and the Pentagon, is independently verifying that.

John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, stated earlier on Wednesday that American information revealed Hamas was conducting operations out of Al-Shifa Hospital.

I would add that we feel confident in our intelligence judgement regarding the extent to which Hamas has used Al-Shifa Hospital as a subterranean storage site and a hub for command and control. Kirby stated, “We’re very comfortable with our own assessment of intelligence for that.”The Israel Defence Forces have maintained on several occasions that Hamas had constructed an underground network of terror beneath the hospital, using the hospital’s cover as a base of operations.

The IDF published a 3D picture of tunnels it claimed existed beneath the facility and released images in late October designating several buildings as having Hamas complexes underneath them, all in support of its claims that the site served as a command and control centre. However, the underground complex that the Israeli government claims is beneath the hospital was not visible in the first images and videos that the IDF posted on X, the former name of Twitter, on Thursday.

Despite this, Regev maintained that the hospital served as a base for Hamas, claiming that it is well known that the terrorist organisation has constructed a network of terror tunnels beneath the medical centre that connects it to weapons dumps, rocket launchers, and other locations.

Israel stated on Wednesday that it had carried out a “targeted” assault inside the hospital and that its soldiers had found military hardware that Hamas had utilised during the attack.The senior adviser stated that more data supporting the IDF’s action will be made available in the next several days.

In the upcoming hours and days, I believe you’ll receive further information. We began operating within the hospital building on this day. There’ll be more. Regev stated, “I have no doubt about it,” and that media would be allowed entry to Al-Shifa Hospital “when it’s safe.”