Days after Israeli raids on Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital, US intelligence released fresh findings.
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00:00Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad uses some hospitals in the Gaza Strip as a way
00:07to conceal and support their military operations and hold hostages.
00:11They have tunnels underneath these hospitals.
00:30The president said yesterday that hospitals in Gaza must be protected.
00:49Is the U.S. telling Israel not to attack hospitals or to shift the way it is operating at these
00:54sites?
00:55And then second, do you have any conclusive intelligence that these hospitals are legitimate
01:00military targets?
01:02So we've been very clear with, I think you've seen in the readouts that the secretary has
01:07had with Minister Gallant, that we believe that the protection of innocent civilians
01:13is of course not only a priority, but it must be upheld.
01:18And so you've seen in our readouts time and time again, that is something that the secretary
01:23continues to emphasize with Minister Gallant in all of his calls.
01:26And you've seen that from the, not just this department, but across this administration.
01:31I think what Jake Sullivan said yesterday is exactly what we keep reiterating to our
01:39Israeli counterparts, is that we don't want to see a firefight in a hospital.
01:43We absolutely believe that hospitals should be places where people seeking medical treatment
01:51and attention need to be, and those places should be protected.
01:55But you have to remember that, and we do have information that Hamas and the Palestinian
02:03Islamic Jihad uses some hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including the Al-Shifa Hospital, as
02:11a way to conceal and support their military operations and hold hostages.
02:16They have tunnels underneath these hospitals.
02:18And so Hamas and PIJ members operate a command and control node from Al-Shifa Hospital in
02:24Gaza City.
02:25They have weapons stored there and are prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation
02:31against the facility.
02:32So this is, I'm just telling you what we as the intelligence community assesses is happening
02:40in Gaza City, how Hamas is using these hospitals to operate.
02:44But absolutely, we do not want to see a firefight in a hospital where there are innocent civilians.
02:49You don't have any forces on the ground, right?
02:52That's right.
02:53So I take it this intelligence assessment is gathered based on information provided
02:56by Israel?
02:57Sorry, what I just read out?
03:00That's from our intelligence community.
03:01So did you have any assets inside Gaza Intelligence Community?
03:05We have no assets or boots on the ground in Gaza.
03:08There's no gathering on the ground about this.
03:13So you have no one entering the hospitals to verify this information, right?
03:18We have no boots on the ground in Gaza.
03:22How was that assessment, how did you conclude that assessment based on information received
03:28from your Israeli counterparts?
03:29Well, I'm not going to get into more specifics on how our intelligence is collected.
03:34What I can tell you is there are multiple agencies, as you know, here within the department
03:38and across the administration.
03:40Multiple agencies that collect and assess and analyze intelligence, but I'm not going
03:45to go into any further details on how that intelligence is gathered.