Patients and IDPs at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City (French)
The US State Department said Tuesday that the United States wants to evacuate Gaza hospital patients safely to avoid harm, and that it will support an independent third party to conduct the evacuations.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said during a press briefing that Washington was currently in talks with aid organizations and third parties about the possible evacuation of patients.
Miller added that his country "does not want to see any civilians, certainly children in incubators and other vulnerable populations, in the crossfire."
The US spokesman's comments come as the White House and Pentagon adopted the Israeli narrative that Hamas uses the Shifa Medical Complex and other hospitals in Gaza as "command centers."
Commenting on the US statements, the director general of Gaza's Health Ministry said Shifa hospital was full of displaced people, adding that no one saw any command and control centers used by Hamas.
Hamas has denied the Israeli allegations in this regard, describing them as false and misleading, and the government media office in Gaza denied these allegations and expressed its readiness to receive a UN committee to verify the conditions of hospitals.
Human Rights Watch confirmed that there is no evidence to substantiate allegations that hospitals in Gaza are being used for military purposes.
For its part, the World Health Organization stressed Tuesday that the transfer of the most vulnerable patients from Shifa Hospital in Gaza has become an "impossible task," and said that the transfer of patients will inevitably lead to deaths, stressing that under international humanitarian law, no hospital should ever be attacked.
Shifa Hospital and other hospitals in the Gaza Strip are under siege and shelling by the Israeli occupying forces, resulting in the death of patients.
Source: Al Jazeera + Reuters