The Israel Defense Forces presented footage of what it claimed was evidence of an underground Hamas command center under the Rantisi Hospital in Gaza.
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said late on Monday local time the Navy’s elite Shayetet 13 commando unit and the 401st Armored Brigade raided Gaza City’s Rantisi Hospital, where they uncovered not just weapons, but what he said were indications that some of the hostages may have been held there.
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“Underneath the hospital, in the basement, we found a Hamas command and control center, suicide-bomb vests, grenades, AK-47 assault rifles, explosive devices, RPGs, and other weapons, computers, money, etc.,” Hagari said, in an English press conference. “We also found signs that indicate that Hamas held hostages here,” Hagari noted, adding that “this is currently under our investigation.”
Special footage from the Rantisi hospital in Gaza – on the basement floor, a room was found with signs indicating hostages were held there, underground headquarters and a room full of weapons inside the hospital: pic.twitter.com/pDsyA1mT6T
— דובר צה״ל דניאל הגרי – Daniel Hagari (@IDFSpokesperson) November 13, 2023
Major hospitals in northern Gaza have been brought in the crosshairs of Israel’s war against Hamas, which hides its command posts under protected civilian areas like hospitals, schools, and mosques, U.S. officials have said, as it urges Israel to do more to prevent civilian casualties.
“You can see even from open-source reporting that Hamas does use hospitals, along with a lot of other civilian facilities, for command-and-control, for storing weapons, for housing its fighters,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on CNN’s State of the Union. “Without getting into this specific hospital or that specific claim, this is Hamas’ track record, both historically and in this conflict.”
U.S. officials said they didn’t want to see civilians in hospitals become collateral damage in the war. President Joe Biden said on Monday that “hospitals must be protected.”
“We don’t want to see hospitals be the subject of crossfire,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on Monday. “We want to see the civilians who are sheltering in hospitals, the civilians who are being treated in hospitals, including babies in hospitals, be protected civilians or hospitals or legitimate civilian infrastructure, they should be protected. At the same time, I would say Hamas continues to use hospitals as locations for its command posts.”
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“We would love to see Hamas vacate the hospitals that it’s using as command posts immediately,” he quipped. “We would love to see all people that are calling for Israel to take steps to protect hospitals call for Hamas to vacate the hospitals and stop using civilians as human shields.”
Hamas has a command node under the Al-Shifa hospital, uses fuel intended for the hospital, and its fighters regularly cluster in and around Gaza’s largest hospital, CNN reported, citing an anonymous U.S. official.
