The intelligence the United States has collected that Hamas was using Shifa Hospital in Gaza as a command node is primarily signals intelligence, three people familiar with the assessment told CNN on Thursday.
_x000D_This included intercepted conversations among the militants discussing the infrastructure, the sources said. Two of the people said the intelligence was solid.
_x000D_“The US would not have said this if we did not buy the intelligence we’re seeing,” one of the sources told CNN.
_x000D_Earlier this week, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that the US has independent intelligence showing that the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations have been using the Shifa Hospital to conduct their military operations and, among other things, are storing weapons at the hospital.
_x000D_Israeli special forces raided the hospital early Wednesday morning, finding a Hamas command center there.
_x000D_On Thursday, Israel released footage of an operational tunnel shaft which was found inside the hospital complex.
_x000D_An IDF spokesperson later told CNN there are hundreds of miles of tunnels all around the Gaza Strip, including near the hospital.
_x000D_“We have already found 300 shafts that go into these tunnels, most of them booby trappers, including in the vicinity of that hospital,” the spokesperson, Lt. Col. Amnon Shefler, said. “Now some of these have been also closed by Hamas and others will be revealed when we find them.”
