Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Thursday the "next phase" of the war in Gaza "has begun."
His comments came as the Israel Defense Forces completed its capture of western Gaza City, in addition to the Gaza harbor, the latter of which Israeli officials said was a Hamas training center, though it has not been independently verified.
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"In the past day, we completed the capture and cleansing of western Gaza City. The next stage has begun — the forces are working precisely, determinedly, decisively, with very high coordination between the air force, navy, and ground forces, accompanied by encompassing and strong intelligence," Gallant said on Thursday.
Israeli ground forces have primarily targeted northern Gaza for its operations while urging civilians to evacuate south.
"The IDF has gained operational control over the Hamas-operated Gaza Harbor. Disguised as a civilian area, the harbor was used by Hamas as a training facility for their naval commando forces to plan and execute terrorist attacks," the IDF said in a statement. "During the operation, conducted by soldiers of the 188th Armored Corps' Brigade and Flotilla 13, numerous terrorist tunnel entrances and terrorist infrastructures were destroyed."
The latest situation involves the Shifa Hospital in the northern part of the enclave, which Israeli officials have argued has been used by Hamas as a command center. Israeli forces now have control of the hospital, which, at the time they raided, was still in use to treat injured civilians while thousands of civilians were also sheltering there.
U.S. officials, including President Joe Biden, have said in the last day that the intelligence community also has intelligence proving Hamas was using the hospital to embed itself within civilian populations. Biden called it a war crime for Hamas to use the cover civilians provide for its activities and called it "a fact" that it is doing so.
"Here's the situation: You have a circumstance where the first war crime is being committed by Hamas by having their headquarters, their military, hidden under a hospital. And that's a fact. That's what's happened," Biden said in a Wednesday event press conference following his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. "We've discussed the need for them to be incredibly careful."
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Israeli forces said they found weapons within the hospital but have yet to find a direct connection between the hospital and Hamas's underground tunnel system that has allowed it to store weapons and hide from Israeli forces for years.
The intelligence showed Hamas "were sheltering themselves in a hospital, using the hospital as a shield against military action, and placing the patients and medical staff at greater risk," U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Thursday. "We are still convinced of the soundness of that intelligence."