US President Joe Biden said on Monday that the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City must be protected and that he hopes there will be less intrusive action there, even as National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan strongly defended Israel’s right to attack Hamas installations in those institutions.
“What the president just said is that we do not want to see firefights in hospitals, we want to see patients protected,” Sullivan told reporters in Washington.
He spoke as Israeli tanks took up positions at the gates of Gaza City’s main hospital on Monday including Al Shifa hospital where at least 650 patients were still inside, desperate to be evacuated to another medical facility.
Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qidra, who was inside Al Shifa hospital, said 32 patients had died in the last three days, including three newborn babies, as a result of the siege of the hospital and lack of power.
Israel says the hospital sits atop tunnels housing a headquarters for Hamas fighters using patients as human shield.
Smoke rises as displaced Palestinians take shelter at Al Shifa hospital, amid the ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel, in Gaza City, November 8, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/DOAA ROUQA)
Jake Sullivan: IDF is facing ‘murderous terrorists’
Sullivan told reporters that Israel was in a very complex position as it advanced its military campaign to oust Hamas from Gaza.
The Israeli army is facing “murderous terrorists who continue to say that their goal is the destruction of the state of Israel,” Sullivan stated.
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“You are dealing with a terrorist organization Hamas that takes civilians hostages, including little children, that uses civilians as human shields that uses civilian infrastructure even hospitals in the most cynical ways possible as fighting positions as military operation centers,” he stated.
“Israeli has to confront that while at the same time not wanting to go assaulting hospitals in firefights that could put innocent people who are getting life-saving medical care in the crossfire,” Sullivan stated.
“This is the complexity, this is the burden that the Israeli defense forces are facing as they conduct their operations,” he said.
“Our position is that Israel has a right to go after Hamas but it does face that added burden and that burden does not lessen its responsibility to act according to the laws of war,” Sullivan said.
With respect to the Hamas-held hostages in Gaza, including possibly nine US citizens, Sullivan said that the US “has limited visibility into the whereabouts of the hostages and their condition.
“We do have information about some of the hostages and the notion that there are a substantial number of hostages who are not just alive but who could be part of a hostage release,” Sullivan said.
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