CNN –
The U.S. reiterated its assessment that Hamas and other Gaza militants were using the enclave's largest hospital complex as a command center and to hold hostages and store weapons, according to U.S. intelligence.
“The U.S. intelligence community is confident in its judgment on this issue and has independently verified information about Hamas and [Palestinian Islamic Jiahd]“The use of the hospital complex for various purposes related to their campaign against Israel,” the official said on Tuesday.
However, US intelligence released no new evidence to support its assessment after questions emerged about the extent to which Al-Shifa Hospital was actually the “beating heart” of Hamas operations, as Israel had claimed.
In late December, The Washington Post published an extensive investigation that cast doubt on some of Israel's claims.
Israel had been widely criticized for the siege and attack on the struggling hospital in November, where doctors described the situation as “catastrophic”.
The new intelligence confirmed previous claims by the Biden administration and Israel in the days and weeks before Israel's raid on Al-Shifa Hospital in November that intelligence indicated Hamas had a command and control node in the tunnels beneath the hospital complex .
A National Security Council spokesman, John Kirby, had also said that the hospital was being used to store weapons and hold hostages.
US intelligence continues to believe there were “at least some hostages” on the site, according to the senior official.
“We have information – received after November 15th [Israel Defense Forces] “The Hamas members who were in the hospital had evacuated much of their stay days earlier as the IDF approached the Al-Shifa complex, and Hamas had destroyed documents and electronic equipment in the complex in advance of the IDF operation ” said the official.
After Israel took control of the area, the military released a series of videos from speakers showing weapons allegedly found in the hospital itself, as well as in a tunnel system beneath the hospital.
In November, Hamas admitted using the hospital to bring in hostages as it “meticulously monitored” their health before holding them in various locations, after Israel released video from the hospital's security cameras showing hostages be brought in. However, Hamas denied using the hospital as a command center.
CNN traveled with the IDF to the Shifa hospital complex in November to view the exposed tunnel shaft. The IDF then released a video showing a tunnel extending from the shaft and running under the hospital complex.
In a video released by the IDF on November 22, IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari went into the tunnels and showed a tiled room and a bathroom that Hagari said was beneath the hospital and connected to its electrical grid.
However, it was far from proven that Hamas used the hospital as a primary command and control hub for its operations, a claim that both Israel and the US had made repeatedly before the IDF reached the hospital. Israel even went so far as to release a 3D graphic illustration of a Hamas command center extending underground directly from the hospital buildings. Neither Israel nor the US have released evidence that fully matches the claims.