US doubles down on assessment Hamas used Gaza hospital as command hub

CNN —

The US doubled down on its assessment that Hamas and other Gaza militants used the enclave’s largest hospital complex as a command hub as well as to hold hostages and store weapons, with a senior intelligence official pointing to newly declassified intelligence that reinforces the conclusion of Israeli and US intelligence.

“The US Intelligence Community is confident in its judgment on this topic and has independently corroborated information on Hamas and [Palestinian Islamic Jiahd]’s use of the hospital complex for a variety of purposes related to its campaign against Israel,” the official said Tuesday.

But the US intelligence community did not release any new evidence to support its assessment after questions were raised about to what extent the Al-Shifa Hospital was indeed 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 come under widespread criticism for its November siege and assault on the struggling hospital, where doctors had described the situation as “catastrophic.”

The new intelligence echoed previous allegations by the Biden administration and Israel in the days and weeks leading up to Israel’s November raid on Al-Shifa Hospital that intelligence indicated Hamas had a command and control node in the tunnels under the hospital complex.

A spokesman for the National Security Council, John Kirby, had also said the hospital was being used to store weapons and hold hostages.

US intelligence continues to believe that, according to the senior official, who added the site held “at least a few hostages.”

“We have information—obtained after the November