Hamas used the Gaza hospital as a command center, US intelligence says
U.S. spy agencies believe Hamas and another Palestinian group fighting Israel used Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital to divert troops and hold some hostages, according to new U.S. intelligence released Tuesday.
The hospital was the focus of a major effort in November by the Israeli military to take control of the facility, an operation that came under intense international scrutiny and criticism.
Israeli officials said Hamas had built a huge complex beneath the hospital, making it a legitimate military target. But critics said the military operation effectively cut off and shut down a crucial part of Gaza’s medical network, with little evidence that Hamas was using the hospital as a command post.
A senior U.S. intelligence official said Tuesday that the U.S. government continued to believe that Hamas used the hospital complex and its underlying sites to conduct command and control activities, store weapons and hold “at least a few hostages.”
U.S. intelligence officials obtained information that Hamas fighters had evacuated the complex days before the multi-day operation, destroying documents and electronics as they left, the senior intelligence official said.
After the operation, the Israeli army took reporters to a shaft in the complex that led to a tunnel network. Later the army showed the tunnels under the hospital.
White House officials at the time supported the Israeli assessment. “We have information confirming that Hamas is using that specific hospital as a command and control hub,” John F. Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said on November 14.
In the weeks after the operation news organizations have continued to ask questions about the presence of Hamas in the hospital. And health and humanitarian organizations have criticized the Israeli operation. A humanitarian team led by the World Health Organization, which visited Al-Shifa immediately after Israeli forces stormed the hospital, called it a “death zone.”
But the US intelligence assessment remained clear that the hospital was being used by Hamas. The new intelligence represents the most current U.S. assessment, officials said.
According to intelligence, the complex was used by both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to command forces against Israel.
Although the spy agencies provided no visual evidence, a U.S. official said they were confident in their assessment because it was based on information collected independently by Israel and its own U.S. intelligence community.
Some had hoped that the operation to capture the hospital could result in the rescue of some of the hostages taken by Palestinian fighters during their attack on Israel on October 7. No hostages were rescued, but Israeli officials found the bodies of two hostages at or near the complex, officials said.
The new US intelligence assessment shows that the Israeli assessment was at least partly correct, namely that some hostages were being held at or below the complex. But those hostages appear to have been moved when Hamas evacuated.