MSNBC Falsely Claims Israel Has Provided 'Sparse' Evidence Hamas in Hospitals

Nicholas Fondacaro
November 16th, 2023 3:51 PM

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For the fourth day in a row, pro-Hamas MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell used her eponymous show to run defense for the terror organization and to claim that the group, which slaughtered Israeli women, children, and the elderly (and kidnapped the same), wouldn’t put their tunnels and terror infrastructure under ANY hospital in Gaza. And despite Israel putting out a video of the piles of weapons and explosives they found immediately after stepping through the door of the Al Shifa radiology unit, MSNBC spent part of Thursday falsely suggesting the evidence was “sparse.”

At the top of the show, Mitchell was eager to bloviate about how there were “conflicting versions of what's unfolding at Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital, with Israel saying its troops found a Hamas command center inside.” She boasted that NBC News had not “verified” Israel’s “claim” and that the network was backed up by “denials” from Hamas and their allies in the Gaza Strip.

 

 

She expanded her BIG LIE to falsely claim Hamas was not in ANY hospital in Gaza. “What is the latest on the military operations at Al Shifa? And there are also claims by the IDF about our hospitals that we have not confirmed and we are getting strong denials, including the pediatric hospital,” she huffed to NBC correspondent Raf Sanchez.

Almost immediately, Sanchez went on a short rant about how “the Israeli military is aware that they are facing a major test of credibility at this point, because Israel has been telling the world for weeks, and the U.S. has been confirming, that Hamas is operating out of this medical facility.”

And to meet that expectation from the highly anti-Semitic and pro-Hamas press, on Wednesday, the spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces, Jonathan Conricus was sent into Al Shifa hospital to document what the troops found. In the video, Conricus led a short tour of the first few rooms of the radiology wing where weapons, explosives, and gear were stored throughout the facility.

 

 

Sanchez tried to downplay the video (which MSNBC played) by suggesting the evidence was “sparse” and all the weapons were not enough to definitively say Hamas was operating there or to justify a military operation against the hospital:

But when Israel showed the world its evidence yesterday, it was pretty sparse. It was a number of assault rifles, some ammunition, some grenades, literature from Hamas. But a lot of people are asking whether that is enough to justify a military operation inside of a hospital the size of Al-Shifa.

He also scoffed at the idea that they would even find Hamas’s underground command center. Sanchez seemed to hint that Israel’s warning that it would take time to clear the facility was a tacit admission of failure to locate the base:

But what Israel has not yet shown the world is any proof of this tunnel system or this command center underneath the hospital. They say it's going to take them days, maybe weeks to search what is a pretty big campus. And when they do find the tunnels, they say it will take time to clear them, to drive out Hamas fighters, to clear away booby traps.

He really should have kept his mouth shut on that point because a couple of after he uttered those words, Israel released a video of a tunnel they dug up at Al Shifa.

 

 

If only Mitchell would have gone to her second guest first. New York Times diplomatic correspondent Michael Crowley warned them not to get too full of themselves in suggesting Israel wasn’t finding evidence, because time was on their side:

I think it will be helpful to see -- give the Israelis more time, let's see what they come up with. My understanding, at least, of the main video that’s going around is that that was a radiology building that was one small part of a much larger hospital complex. So, I don't think that that’s everything the Israelis are going to find, if there are, in fact -- if Hamas has, in fact, been conducting major operations in and under the hospital. So, let's see what emerges in the next couple, few days.

The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:

MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports
November 16, 2023
12:00:05 p.m. Eastern

ANDREA MITCHELL: Conflicting versions of what's unfolding at Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital, with Israel saying its troops found a Hamas command center inside. A claim not verified by NBC News and denials from the doctors inside as well as Hamas.

(…)

12:04:01 p.m. Eastern

MITCHELL: What is the latest on the military operations at Al Shifa? And there are also claims by the IDF about our hospitals that we have not confirmed and we are getting strong denials, including the pediatric hospital.

RAF SANCHEZ: Yeah. That's right, Andrea. So, Israeli commandos going floor by floor inside the Al-Shifa hospital, continuing operations for a second day there. They say they are looking for evidence of Hamas's presence inside of the hospital.

It is very difficult for us at this point to confirm exactly what is going on, because all telecommunications in Gaza are down at this point. The two big Palestinian phone companies say they have simply run out of fuel. They cannot keep the services up. So, all week, we have been able to call doctors, surgeons at Al-Shifa hospital. They’ve been able to tell us what they’re seeing. Now, it is just ominous silence coming from the largest medical facility inside of Gaza.

And Andrea, the Israeli military is aware that they are facing a major test of credibility at this point, because Israel has been telling the world for weeks, and the U.S. has been confirming, that Hamas is operating out of this medical facility. But when Israel showed the world its evidence yesterday, it was pretty sparse. It was a number of assault rifles, some ammunition, some grenades, literature from Hamas. But a lot of people are asking whether that is enough to justify a military operation inside of a hospital the size of Al-Shifa.

Israel is saying, “Look, Hamas knew we were coming. We were closing in on the hospital for weeks. We were giving people time to leave. So, it's no surprise that they were able to hide most of the evidence.” But what Israel has not yet shown the world is any proof of this tunnel system or this command center underneath the hospital. They say it's going to take them days, maybe weeks to search what is a pretty big campus. And when they do find the tunnels, they say it will take time to clear them, to drive out Hamas fighters, to clear away booby traps.

But humanitarian organizations, human rights groups all around the world are looking very, very closely at what is happening at Al-Shifa. And they are asking tough questions about whether the military gains Israel says it's making by taking over the facility outweigh just the enormous humanitarian cost. Andrea.

MITCHELL: Such a complicated situation. Raf, thanks for starting us off.

(…)

12:08:10 p.m. Eastern

MICHAEL CROWLEY (NYT diplomatic correspondent): I think it will be helpful to see -- give the Israelis more time, let's see what they come up with. My understanding, at least, of the main video that’s going around is that that was a radiology building that was one small part of a much larger hospital complex. So, I don't think that that’s everything the Israelis are going to find, if there are, in fact -- if Hamas has, in fact, been conducting major operations in and under the hospital. So, let's see what emerges in the next couple, few days.

(…)

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