LAST UPDATE | 14 Nov 2023
HAMAS HAS SAID that remarks made White House’s that the militant group had a command centre at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza will fuel “massacres” at the facilities.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters today that Hamas operate a “command and control node from Al-Shifa in Gaza City”, citing US intelligence sources.
In response to these claims, Hamas said this gave a “green light” to Israel to commit “brutal massacres” targeting medical facilities in the Palestinian territory.
“These statements give a green light to the Israeli occupation to commit further brutal massacres targeting hospitals, with the goal of destroying Gaza’s healthcare system and displacing Palestinians,” the militant group said in a statement issued in English.
“The United States bears direct responsibility for enabling Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza,” the group added.
Kirby said earlier: “We have information that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad use some hospitals in the Gaza Strip including Al-Shifa and tunnels underneath them to conceal and to support their military operations and to hold hostages.
“We have information that confirms that Hamas is using that particular hospital for a command and control node and probably storage of equipment, weapons… That is a war crime.”
The White House statement, echoed by the State Department and the Pentagon, comes as pressure ramps up on Israel over its blockade of the sprawling Al-Shifa compound, where doctors say patients and people seeking shelter are stranded in horrific conditions.
“They have stored weapons there and they’re prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation against that facility,” he told reporters.
Yesterday, the IDF shared what they deemed proof, on their X, formerly Twitter, account, of hostages being held inside hospitals in Gaza. The health ministry in Gaza has today denied this claim.
The army spokesman, Daniel Hagari, said troops “found signs that indicate that Hamas held hostages” in the basement of Al-Rantisi children’s hospital in Gaza City.
US President Joe Biden said yesterday, after the release from the IDF, that hospitals must be protected and remain safe havens for civilians and medical staff in the area.
AFP journalists on the ground have not been able to independently confirm the allegations from the IDF’s video.
The health ministry in Gaza said the objects merely showed the basement was used by displaced residents fleeing fighting.
In a statement, the ministry said the video was “poor staging” with “not a single piece of evidence” backing the Israeli army claims.
“This basement appeared in the original blueprints of the hospital as a storage area and displaced people found refuge there,” it added.
EXCLUSIVE RAW FOOTAGE: Watch IDF Spokesperson RAdm. Daniel Hagari walk through one of Hamas' subterranean terrorist tunnels—only to exit in Gaza's Rantisi hospital on the other side.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 13, 2023
Inside these tunnels, Hamas terrorists hide, operate and hold Israeli hostages against their… pic.twitter.com/Nx4lVrvSXH
THE FAMILIES OF Irish-Israeli citizens whose family members were captured as hostages by Hamas on 7 October have met with President Michael D Higgins today.
Thomas and Natali Hand, the father and sister of 8-year-old Emily Hand, and Maya Lambroso, Tal Yeshurun and Eylon Keshet – representing a number of families of those being held as hostages – met with Higgins this afternoon.
Following the meeting, Higgins said the welfare of citizens in Gaza and Israel should be “in the forefront of all of our minds at this time”.
“In our meeting, we discussed what actions can be taken to help ensure the safe return of the hostages to their families,” the President said.
“To this end, I once again call for the unconditional release of all hostages currently being held in Gaza.
“I further echo the call which the families have made that the Red Cross/Red Crescent, or another appropriate organisation, must be given such access to the hostages as will enable their present position to be affirmed,” he added.
Qatar has also urged Israel and Hamas to reach an agreement on releasing hostages, warning that the situation in Gaza was worsening every day.
Speaking to a news conference in Doha, Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed bin Mohammed Al-Ansari said the “deteriorating” situation in Gaza was hampering mediation efforts.
“We believe there is no other chance for both sides other than for this mediation to take place and to reach a situation where we can see a glimmer of hope in this terrible crisis,” he said.
The Israeli Defence Forces earlier today confirmed that the Red Cross has yet to meet Israeli hostages, therefore agencies and world leaders have no proof of life of these hostages.
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen: “Until today, none of our hostages met the Red Cross. We don’t have any proof of life.”
Cohen and Israel’s Health Minister Uriel Menachem Buso met with Mirjana Spoljaric, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to discuss the war that erupted after the October 7 Hamas attacks.
“We asked for information… about the whereabouts of the hostages,” Buso said.
“The wounded ones, the babies, any information that they can give us regarding proof of life.”
The President underlined the need for international law to be respected by all sides and emphasised the importance of the loss of civilian life being brought to an end as soon as possible, and for children in particular to be protected.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar met with the families yesterday while Tánaiste Micheál Martin will be travelling to Egypt, Israel and the West Bank later this week.
Martin also met wet Emily Hand’s father, Thomas Hand, today.
Grateful to meet Thomas Hand and his daughter Natali, and other relatives of civilians being held hostage in Gaza today. Our thoughts are with you. pic.twitter.com/Dwoez6sdwA
— Micheál Martin (@MichealMartinTD) November 14, 2023
Speaking to RTÉ’s News at One, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that the situation in Gaza is “deteriorating rapidly”.
“It is the government’s position for quite some time that there should be a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza to be observed by all sides, by the way, not just Israel, also by Hamas and Islamic Jihad that would allow power, fuel, medicines, aid to get into Gaza. It would allow for hostages to be released, it would allow for citizens to leave and that is our position,” Varadkar said.
The Taoiseach said he spoke to the Israeli ambassador yesterday and was told by her that it is “not the case” that Israel is refusing to let Irish citizens leave Gaza.
“We’re continuing to seek permission for Irish citizens, Irish Palestinian nationals to leave from Gaza. I’m very conscious that we have citizens in Gaza,” he said.
“I’m very conscious that there’s a young Irish girl, nine years old … Emily Hand, who’s being held by Hamas as a hostage.”
Varadkar noted that there are 400 Irish troops on the Israeli border in southern Lebanon, adding that “their safety is paramount”.
Hamas, an Islamic militant group who are deemed a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US and the EU, among other powers has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007 after winning the 2006 Palestinian elections and taking power by force.
Israeli leaders have so far insisted there will be no broader ceasefire until hostages are released, but Qatar is mediating talks on a possible deal to free hostages.
Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas’s military wing, said yesterday that a possible deal would involve the release 100 Israeli hostages in return for 200 Palestinian children and 75 women held in Israeli prisons.
“We informed the mediators we could release the hostages if we obtained five days of truce… and passage of aid to all of our people throughout the Gaza Strip, but the enemy is procrastinating,” Abu Obeida said in an audio statement.
Biden said he was “somewhat hopeful” the Qatar-mediated talks could lead to a deal.
As security officials and diplomats continued negotiations, Hamas’s military wing issued a video of captive Israeli soldier Noa Marciano.
The Israeli army on Tuesday confirmed she was dead.
Abu Obeida, the spokesman for Hamas’s military wing, claimed Marciano was killed in an Israeli strike. The Israeli army did not say how she was killed.
US President Joe Biden earlier pressed Israel to protect Gaza’s main hospital, which has been trapped in fierce combat.
The health ministry in Gaza says Israel’s relentless assault has killed 11,240 people, also mostly civilians, including thousands of children – Hamas says it tallies these figures from hospital directors, and they are generally used by international news outlets despite an inability to independently verify them because foreign media and observers have been unable to access the Gaza Strip since the conflict began.
Israeli forces were at the gates of the sprawling Al-Shifa hospital they say sits atop an underground Hamas command base, but the militants deny the charge and doctors say thousands of people are stranded inside in horrific conditions.
“There are bodies littered in the hospital complex and there is no longer electricity at the morgues,” said Al-Shifa hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiyah, adding that 179 bodies had been interred so far.
“We were forced to bury them in a mass grave,” he said, adding that seven babies and 29 intensive care patients were among those who had died after fuel for the hospital’s generator ran out.
A witness said the smell of decomposing bodies was everywhere in the facility, but nighttime fighting and air strikes had been less intense compared to previous nights.
The United Nations believes that thousands, and perhaps more than 10,000 people – patients, staff and displaced civilians – may be inside and unable to escape because of fierce fighting nearby.
Médecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) International said today that “bullets were fired” into one of three of its premises located near Al-Shifa hospital and sheltering MSF staff and their families – over 100 people, including 65 children.
Thousands of civilians, medical staff and patients are currently trapped in hospitals and other locations under fire in Gaza city; they must be protected and afforded safe passage if they wish to leave. Above that, there must be a total and immediate ceasefire.
— MSF International (@MSF) November 14, 2023
Israel says it is not targeting the hospital, but has vowed to destroy Hamas in response to the attacks of 7 October, which killed an estimated 1,200 people, mostly civilians and resulted in 240 hostages being taken to Gaza.
Israel’s military says 47 of its troops have been killed in Gaza.
Biden called on Israel to use “less intrusive action relative to the hospital”, some of his most pointed comments on Israeli operations to date.
“The hospital must be protected,” he told reporters, as international outrage builds over the death and suffering the conflict has inflicted on Gaza civilians.
Israel’s top diplomat acknowledged yesterday that his nation has “two or three weeks until international pressure really steps up”.
Quoted by his spokesman, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen added that Israel is working to “broaden the window of legitimacy, and the fighting will carry on for as long as necessary.”
Hamas’s brutal attacks of 7 October and Israel’s massive response have sparked protests around the world, with hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets in the Middle East, Europe and beyond.
Israel’s supporters insist it must protect citizens after the worst attack in the country’s 75-year history.
But Israel’s critics point to the toll of a blockade and near-relentless bombing campaign on long-suffering civilians in Gaza.
International aid agencies speak of hundreds of thousands of people displaced and a rolling humanitarian catastrophe.
Israel has urged Palestinians to flee south from the heavy combat in the north of the besieged territory, and has agreed to daily pauses in military operations around specified “corridors” to allow the passage of fleeing civilians.
But escaping the fighting is dangerous and wounded Palestinians told AFP how they were hit by a strike on their way south.
“I walked around three to four kilometres while I was bleeding,” said Hasan Baker, whose head and left hand were bandaged. “There was no possibility for any ambulance to enter the area.
“We didn’t have any weapons,” he added. “We are civilians, we were moving from one place to another according to the instructions of the (Israeli) occupation.”
With reporting by Muiris O’Cearbhaill, Hayley Halpin and © AFP 2023
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