On Wednesday’s broadcast of “CNN News Central,” White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby stated that Hamas does hide in hospitals and residential areas and Israel has the right to go after Hamas wherever they hide, but Israel also has “a special burden to be mindful of civilian infrastructure, particularly, hospitals and residential complexes like that, where we don’t want to see them become scenes of battle. So, nobody wants to see fighting in a hospital. So, it does add an extra burden on the Israelis to be more careful, more deliberate.”
Co-host Brianna Keilar asked, “What is the Israeli responsibility here to protect the civilian population, even if you believe that Hamas may be operating near or using some of these people as shields?”
Kirby responded, “Not only near, but sometimes in these facilities, Brianna, in hospitals and residential complexes and…building tunnels underneath those, as well. So, it’s a tough problem set that the Israeli Defense Forces are facing. They have every right to go after Hamas terrorists wherever they are, but they also have an added burden, a special burden to be mindful of civilian infrastructure, particularly, hospitals and residential complexes like that, where we don’t want to see them become scenes of battle. So, nobody wants to see fighting in a hospital. So, it does add an extra burden on the Israelis to be more careful, more deliberate. At the same time, it doesn’t wipe away their responsibility to try to go after these leaders. So, part and parcel of the advice and counsel that we continue to provide the Israelis are our own experience, our own lessons learned in this kind of urban warfare.”
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