Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Israel had supplied fuel to Gaza's Al Shifa hospital, which had shut down due to a lack of fuel, but that the terrorists had rejected it.
NBC News asked Netanyahu if Israel's claims that Hamas had a command station beneath Gaza's main hospital justified jeopardizing the lives of sick people and babies.
"On the contrary, we offered actually, last night, to give them enough fuel to operate the hospital, operate the incubators and so on, because we (have) no battle with patients or civilians at all," Netanyahu said.
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On Sunday, Israel's military stated it was preparing to remove babies from Al Shifa, but Palestinian officials reported people were still stuck inside, with three newborns dead and scores at risk of dying due to a power outage. Fighting is going on nearby.
Netanyahu was asked if Israel has a strategy to get fuel to Gaza to power hospitals. "We simply offered the fuel to Shifa Hospital, and they refused," Netanyahu explained.
"Hamas, (which) is hiding in the hospitals and placing itself there, doesn't want the fuel for the hospital ... they want to get fuel that they'll take from the hospitals to their tunnels, to their war machine."
Hamas denies having command posts beneath Shifa and other Gaza hospitals, as claimed by Israel. It made no immediate response to Netanyahu's remarks.
