United States intelligence agencies believe that the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza was used by the Hamas militant group and another Palestinian squad fighting Israel to run their forces and hold hostages.
However, according to a US official who spoke on Tuesday, January 2, citing declassified US intelligence, the groups mostly fled the facility days before Israeli forces arrived.
Al Shifa Hospital as Command Center
In a report by Reuters, a senior US official, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that the facility served as a command center for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas in their conflicts with Israel.
American intelligence services have been tight-lipped about the data that supported their assessment. The New York Times was the first to report their conclusions. On the other hand, the US government has independently verified the information, said the official.
Hamas allegedly utilized Al Shifa, a site that Israel had seized previously in the conflict in Gaza. The medical facility was invaded by Israeli forces in November 2023.
Worries about the safety of the people and patients within the hospital had heightened after it was attacked. Within the last month, the enclave's primary health center's emergency room was compared by the World Health Organization to a "bloodbath."
The US official said the American administration held the belief that Hamas used the hospital complex and the locations beneath it for command and control operations, weapon storage, and hostage holding.
The source stated that the US spy agencies learned that Hamas members had mostly fled the location in the days before Israel's assault, destroying papers and equipment in the process.
Israeli Operations in the Medical Facility
Some patients were still inside the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City as Israeli tanks marched on it in mid-November 2023. While Hamas denied the accusation, Israel said the facility was located on top of tunnels that housed the headquarters of the terrorist group.
While the Israeli report was largely accurate in stating that captives were kept in or under the facility, the New York Times stated that when Hamas departed, the hostages seemed to have been relocated.
According to John Kirby, the national security spokesperson for the White House, the hospital was being used as a safe haven by Hamas militants last November, who were putting the lives of patients and medical personnel in danger by taking cover there.
He said at the time, "We have our own intelligence that convinces us that Hamas was using Al Shifa as a command and control node, and most likely as well as a storage facility."
