Kristen Welker presses Biden official over Israel following international law

Source: The Hill

Kristen Welker presses Biden official over Israel following international law

BY LAUREN SFORZA - 11/19/23 9:29 AM ET

NBC’s Kristen Welker pressed deputy National Security Adviser Jonathan Finer on Sunday over whether the U.S. is confident that Israel is following international law when it comes to its operations in Gaza with the Biden administration official appearing to dodge answering the question.

Welker pointed to comments made by the Qatari prime minister who said that Israel’s actions at the al-Shifa Hospital were a “crime.” This comes almost a week after Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) revealed it was going through with an operation at the hospital, claiming that it was a base for Hamas — the militant group that launched its deadly surprise attack on Israel early last month.

When asked if the U.S. stood by Israel’s assessment that Hamas is headquartered underneath the hospital and whether they were following international law, Finer reiterated that U.S. intelligence supported that notion.

“We have been equally clear that our intelligence, US intelligence information, not just Israeli intelligence information, suggests that Hamas is used al-Shifa in an unconscionable way as a command and control facility for the planning of terrorist attacks and the execution of service attacks and continues to do,” Finer said on “Meet the Press.”

“That does not, in our view, mean that Israel should conduct airstrikes on the hospital or ground assaults on the hospital,” he added. ...

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Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/international/4317279-kristen-welker-presses-biden-official-over-israel-following-international-law/

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Source: The Wrap

White House Official Refuses to Say if Israel is Committing War Crimes in Gaza: ‘It Is Not Our Position’ to Judge ǀ Video

Stephanie Kaloi
Sun, November 19, 2023 at 1:05 PM EST·3 min read

White House Deputy National Security Adviser Jonathan Finer isn’t ready to comment on whether or not Israel is following international law in its ongoing war against Hamas. When pressed on the issue on Sunday’s “Meet The Press,” Finer repeatedly deflected and told NBC’s Kristen Welker, “What I can say is it is not our position, certainly my position as a policymaker, to play real-time judge and jury on the question of any particular incident.”

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Of the military raid on Al-Shifa, which left hundreds of patients, staff and civilians displaced, Finer told Welker, “We’ve been quite clear about our view of– of Shifa. Shifa is the largest hospital in Gaza. It is the most advanced hospital in Gaza. There are severely ill patients there. There are also a number of civilians who have gathered there to seek refuge during the course of the conflict, and those lives need to be protected.”

“But we’ve been equally clear that our intelligence, U.S. intelligence information, not just Israeli intelligence information, suggests that Hamas has used Al-Shifa in an unconscionable way as a command and control facility for the planning of terrorist attacks and the execution of terrorist attacks and continues to do so,” he added.

Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, has called Israel’s assault on the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza a “crime.” Israel entered the hospital after its leaders and military alleged that a Hamas command center was housed under the structure.

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Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/white-house-official-refuses-israel-180509943.html