The U.S. has accused Hamas of using patients as human shields while calling for restraint around Gaza’s hospitals as an international outcry grows over the fate of those at the territory’s biggest medical center, Shifa Hospital.
Israeli tanks have surrounded the facility, which Israel says is the site of an underground Hamas headquarters, a claim denied by the militant group and health officials in Gaza.
The hospital has been a focus of Israel’s campaign to wipe out Hamas after its attack on southern Israel on October 7 in which 1,200 people were killed and 240 were taken hostage. Gaza officials say more than 11,000 people have been killed in the territory since then, according to the Associated Press.
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Israel has said it would allow patients and staff to evacuate from Shifa Hospital but Palestinians have said that Israeli forces have fired at evacuees, and that patients are beginning to die as the facility faces a lack of fuel. Health officials say at least 32 patients, including three babies, have died and dozens of other babies are at risk of dying.
In a press briefing on Monday, U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller reiterated Israel’s stance about the facility being an operational hub for the militant group, and that “we would love to see Hamas vacate the hospitals that it is using (as) command posts immediately.
“We would love to see all people that are calling for Israel to take steps to protect hospitals, (to) call for Hamas to vacate the hospitals and stop using civilians as human shields.
“We would love to see Hamas take some of the fuel reserves it is sitting on and use that to supply hospitals in northern Gaza. We would love to see Hamas (to) have taken the fuel that Israel offered it yesterday—that they declined—for use at al-Shifa Hospital.”
Since the October 7 Hamas attacks, President Joe Biden has pledged U.S. support for Israel’s fight against the militant group but said on Monday that he hoped for “less intrusive action relative to hospitals,” which he added “must be protected.”
Newsweek has contacted the White House by email for further comment.
The armed wing of Hamas, Al-Qassam Brigades, has said it was prepared to release up to 70 women and children hostages in return for a five-day ceasefire, an offer Israel is likely to refuse, arguing that Hamas would simply use it to regroup.
Zev Faintuch, senior intelligence analyst at security firm Global Guardian, said Hamas and the Axis of Resistance [an Iranian-led coalition of groups opposed to Israel and the West] and its allies believe any humanitarian pauses would give time for the dissemination of footage of the destruction of Gaza.
This “will exert domestic pressure on the U.S. to start using its leverage to force Israel to stop,” he told Newsweek.
Israel has permitted brief humanitarian “pauses” which White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Washington would like to see extended to “days, not hours—in the context of a hostage release.”
Biden also said on Monday that negotiations were ongoing involving Qatar, for the release of those Hamas had taken hostage. Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported that a deal was under discussion to free kidnapped Israeli women and children in exchange for releasing Palestinian women and youths held in its prisons.
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