Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad have used some Gaza hospitals to store weapons, hold hostages, and are prepared to fight the IDF from medical facilities, United States National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday.
“We have information that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad used some hospitals in the Gaza Strip including Al-Shifa and tunnels underneath them to conceal and to support their military operations and to hold hostages,” Kirby said.
“Hamas and the PIJ members operate a command and control node from Al-Shifa in Gaza City. They have stored weapons there and they are prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation against that facility.
“We do not support striking a hospital from the air and we do not want to see a firefight in the hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people are simply trying to get the medical care that they deserve.
“Hospitals and patients must be protected," he said.
“This just points out how challenging the military operation is. Hamas has deeply imbedded itself within the civilian population. Israel has an added burden given the way that Hamas operates,” Kirby said.
“Hamas actions do not lessen Israel’s responsibility to protect civilians in Gaza,” he said.
Kirby spoke as international protests have grown amid reports from the hospitals of patient deaths in light of the IDF’s push in northern Gaza to uncover and destroy Hamas installations in hospitals and to close the terror groups tunnels underneath them.
Israel faces foreign backlash for bombing Gaza
The government of Belize suspended diplomatic ties with Israel on Tuesday, citing what it described in a statement as "unceasing indiscriminate bombing in Gaza.”
Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told his Australian counterpart in a call that Israel's targeting of hospitals and schools in Gaza amounted to an "open violation of international law," a Turkish diplomatic source said.
Fidan also emphasized the urgency of achieving a full ceasefire as soon as possible and the need for unhindered access of humanitarian aid into the enclave, the source said.
Hamas has asserted that over 11,000 Palestinians have been killed in war related violence.
The IDF launched a military campaign to oust Hamas from Gaza after the terrorist group infiltrated southern Israel on October 7, killing over 1,200 people and seizing over 238 hostages.
On Tuesday the global focus was on the fate of Al Shifa. Palestinians trapped inside Gaza's biggest hospital were digging a mass grave to bury patients who died under Israeli encirclement, and said no plan was in place to evacuate babies despite Israel announcing an offer to send portable incubators.
Hamas, Gaza's ruling Islamist group, denies fighters are present and says 650 patients and 5,000-7,000 other civilians are trapped inside the hospital grounds, under constant fire from snipers and drones. It says 40 patients have died in recent days, including three premature babies whose incubators were knocked out.
A Hamas official in Beirut said 25 of Gaza's 35 hospitals were out of use because of the Israeli army’s military action. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was deeply disturbed by the "dramatic loss of life" in the hospitals, his spokesman said.
"In the name of humanity, the secretary-general calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire," the spokesman told reporters.
Ashraf Al-Qidra, Gaza's health ministry spokesman, reached by telephone inside the hospital compound, said there were about 100 bodies decomposing inside and no way to get them out.
"We are planning to bury them today in a mass grave inside the Al-Shifa medical complex. It is going to be very dangerous as we don't have any cover or protection from the ICRC," he told Reuters, referring to the International Committee of the Red Cross/Crescent.
Thirty-six babies are left from the neo-natal ward after three died. Without fuel for generators to power incubators, the babies were being kept as warm as possible, lined up eight to a bed.
Israel announced on Tuesday that it was offering portable, battery-powered incubators so the babies could be moved. But Qidra said that so far no arrangements had been established to carry out any such evacuation.
"The occupation is still besieging the hospital and they are firing into the yards from time to time," he said.
Israel has denied that Al-Shifa hospital is under siege and says its forces allow exit routes for those inside. Medics and officials inside the hospital deny this and say those trying to leave come under fire. Reuters could not verify the situation.
Speaking at a news briefing, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Washington did not want to see any civilians, "certainly not babies in incubators" and other vulnerable populations caught in the crossfire. He added the US was in conversations with humanitarian organizations and third parties on the possible evacuation.
"We want there to be safe evacuation for patients in hospitals so they can get out of harm's way. We would support an independent third party, a respected third party to conduct those evacuations," Miller said.
"We know the government of Israel would support such a step as well... The question is will Hamas allow patients to be evacuated from hospitals or will they continue to use them as human shields?" Miller added.
He said Washington was in conversations with a number of humanitarian organizations about possible patient evacuations but did not say which ones or give further details.
Kirby said that the US continued to focus on expanding the extent of the humanitarian aid that enters Gaza from the Egyptian crossing at Rafah.
Britain's minister of state for development, Andrew Mitchell, said on Tuesday that longer humanitarian pauses covering wider areas would be needed in the Israel-Palestine conflict in order to deliver aid to the region.
"Longer pauses that cover wider areas will be needed. We are discussing with the UN and other partners how best to achieve this," Mitchell told lawmakers.
Humanitarian aid sent by Italy to Gaza is entering the area in these hours, the Italian foreign minister said on Tuesday.
"Italy has sent two C130 military aircraft carrying 16 tonnes of humanitarian aid, which are in transit towards Gaza in these hours," Antonio Tajani told parliament's joint Foreign Affairs and Defence committees, adding the aid travelled through the Rafah crossing, on the border with Egypt.
Separately the United States and Britain imposed a fresh round of sanctions on Tuesday targeting Hamas as they seek to cut off funding for the militant Palestinian group following its deadly attack on Israel last month.
The United States announced its third round of sanctions since the attack, targeting key Hamas officials and the mechanisms through which Iran provides support to Hamas and its ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), another militant group.
Britain added sanctions on four Hamas senior leaders and two financiers, the Foreign Office said in a statement, including the group's political leader in Gaza and the commander of its military arm.
"The United States will continue to work with our partners, including the UK, to deny Hamas the ability to raise and use funds to carry out its atrocities," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement.
"Hamas’s actions have caused immense suffering and shown that terrorism does not occur in isolation. Together with our partners we are decisively moving to degrade Hamas's financial infrastructure, cut them off from outside funding, and block the new funding channels they seek to finance their heinous acts."