US will not share information about Hamas and Al-Shifa hospital

(Patria) - The United States will not share any Israeli intelligence data or elaborate on its own intelligence assessment that Hamas used Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza as a command center, and possibly as a warehouse, White House spokesperson John Kirby said, Reuters reported.

The United States is confident in the assessment of its intelligence agencies regarding Hamas activities in Gaza, Kirby said. He declined to specify or provide details in the past few days. The Biden administration has not declassified US intelligence sources, "as some of the same channels are used to track the status of hostages," an informed source said.

The intelligence is "definitive," the source said, and includes intercepts of communications by Hamas fighters. The intercepted messages were first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.
Israeli troops entered Al-Shifa hospital on Wednesday after an aerial bombardment and ground operation targeting Hamas militants who killed 1,200 people on October 7. Around 11,500 people have been killed in Israeli attacks.

Asked if the Israelis had shared any new intelligence since the attack on the hospital began, Kirby said: "I am not going to talk about specific intelligence that might be circulating between us."

"They really need to speak to that, but as I said the other day, we are confident in our own intelligence assessment of how Hamas used that hospital," Kirby said.

Hamas militants hid in the hospital and used the facility as a shield from military action, endangering patients and medical staff, he said. "We have our own intelligence that assures us that Hamas used (Al-Shifa) as a command and control node, and most likely as a warehouse. We remain confident in the accuracy of that intelligence," Kirby said.