There were “strong indications hostages were held in Shifa hospital in Gaza,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CBS News on Thursday as he defended the IDF’s highly-criticized military operation in the medical facility on the 41st day of the war in Gaza.
The possibility of finding the hostages, “was one of the reasons we entered Shifa hospital," Netanyahu said. “But if they were, they were taken out.”
Palestinian medics said on Thursday they are increasingly afraid for the lives of hundreds of patients and medical staff at Gaza's biggest hospital, cut off from all links to the outside world for more than a day after the IDF entered.
IDF continues operations at Al-Shifa Hospital
On Thursday night, the military said troops had found a tunnel shaft and vehicle with weapons inside the hospital complex.
"In the Shifa Hospital, IDF troops found an operational tunnel shaft and a vehicle containing a large number of weapons," the army said, as it released videos and photographs that it said showed the tunnel shaft and weapons.
Military equipment including Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades were also uncovered in Al-Shifa hospital, the army said.
It also found the body of Yehudit Weiss, a hostage Hamas seized from Kibbutz Be'eri, near Shifa Hospital on Thursday. The IDF entered Gaza as part of its military campaign to oust the terror group from the Strip after it killed over 1,200 people and took over 239 hostages on October 7.
Talks are ongoing for the possible release of some 50 hostages in exchange for a three-to-five-day pause in hostilities.
The high Palestinian death toll in Gaza, due to the war, which Hamas asserts is over 11,000 has opened Israel up to intense criticism and scrutiny, made sharper by its entry into the Gaza hospital.
Human Rights Watch cautioned that hospitals have special protections under international humanitarian law.
"Hospitals only lose those protections if it can be shown that harmful acts have been carried out from the premises," the watchdog's UN Director Louis Charbonneau told Reuters.
US defends IDF claims, dismisses calls for ceasefire
US State Department spokesman Matthew Millers defended the IDF’s operations to uncover Hamas arms and infrastructure in Gaza medical facilities as he dismissed the idea of a ceasefire.
“I’m not aware that there is an acceptable threshold level for assault rifles held in hospitals. That’s not general humanitarian practice,” Miller said as he pushed back at those who doubted Hamas had operated from within Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
He attacked the misinformation that has entered the debate about Hamas and its actions in Gaza, particularly its use of civilians as human shields.
“I am surprised … that people have ignored the weight of public evidence over years and years of Hamas using civilian infrastructure as human shields. Israel has a right to conduct those military to hold those terrorists accountable," Miller said.
“The idea that Hamas uses civilian infrastructure as human shields is not contested,” he said.
It is important, however, that Israel operate under international law, minimize civilian casualties and ensure the entry into Gaza of humanitarian aid.
The US is in “active conversations” with the government of Israel to ensure that “as they continue to look at expanded military or ground operations in Gaza” they also allow for “humanitarian corridors” for civilians and for “humanitarian pauses,” he said.
U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters he was doing everything in his power to free hostages. The U.S. president had told reporters this week that his message to the hostages was "Hang in there, we're coming," raising questions about what he meant.
Asked to clarify the comment, Biden told a news conference: "What I meant was, I'm doing everything in my power to get you out. Coming to help you, get you out. I don't mean sending in the military in there ... I was not talking about the military."
Biden said he was working on the issue constantly, and would not stop until the hostages - including a three-year-old American child - were freed.
Biden said Hamas was committing war crimes by having its military headquarters under a hospital, repeating a statement made by a White House spokesperson on Tuesday, and he was confident about the U.S. intelligence supporting that "fact."
He said Israel had gone into Gaza's biggest hospital, Al Shifa, with a limited number of troops with guns, and was not carpet-bombing the site.
"They were told ... we discussed the need for them to be incredibly careful," Biden said, adding that Israel had an obligation to use as much caution as possible in going after targets.
But he said it was "not realistic" to expect Israel to stop its military actions, given threats by senior Hamas officials that they intended to attack Israel again and their past "horrific" actions.
“Hamas has already said publicly that they plan on attacking Israel again, like they did before, where they cut babies’ heads off,” Biden said.
On Wednesday, Biden said Israel was now bringing in incubators and other equipment to help people, and its soldiers allowing doctors, nurses and other staff to "get out of harm's way."
Biden said he had told Netanyahu that he did not believe the war would end until a two-state solution was reached.
"I made it clear to Israel that I think it's a big mistake for them to occupy Gaza," he said.