WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — White House National Council spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday the U.S. did not give “an OK” for Israel’s raid on Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital.
“These are Israeli military operations that they plan and execute in accordance with their own established procedures,” he said. “The United States is not involved in those procedures.”
The U.S. said Tuesday it has unspecified intelligence that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad use some hospitals in the Gaza Strip — including Shifa hospital — and tunnels underneath them to hide and to support their military operations and to hold hostages.
When asked Tuesday about evidence to support the claim, Kirby said “It comes from a variety of intelligence sourcing.” He wouldn’t be more specific.
Kirby, however, said hospitals should be protected.
“We don’t want to see hospitals attacked from the air, we don’t want to see innocent civilians, patients, medical staff become victims of crossfire between Hamas and Israeli Defense Forces. We believe hospitals should be protected. This places an added burden on Israeli forces as they conduct their operations around Al-Shifa.”
Israeli troops on Wednesday stormed into Gaza’s largest hospital, searching for traces of Hamas inside and beneath the facility filled with hundreds of patients, including newborns, who have gone for days without electricity and with little food as fighting raged around them.
Officials from Israel and Gaza have presented different narratives about what was happening at the hospital: The Israeli army released video showing soldiers carrying boxes labeled as “baby food” and “medical supplies,” while Gaza health officials talked of terrified staff and patients as troops moved through the buildings.
Fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants in northern Gaza has caused 200,000 people to flee south in the past 10 days, the U.N. humanitarian agency said Tuesday. More than two-thirds of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have fled their homes since the war began.
More than 11,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and minors, have been killed since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths. About 2,700 people have been reported missing.
More than 1,200 people in Israel died, most of them in the Hamas attack, and about 240 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by Palestinian militants.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.