Israel not targeting hospitals, Hamas running command and control centres from there: Israel President Isaac Herzog

By Naveen Kapoor
New Delhi [India]/Tel Aviv [Israel], November 16 : Israel President Isaac Herzog on Thursday said that his country is not targeting hospitals in Gaza and asserted that Hamas has placed command and control centres under the hospitals and "they are shooting and killing" Israeli citizens from there.
In an exclusive interview with ANI, Isaac Herzog said Hamas has missiles and Israel has the right to defend itself and that his country aims to bring its citizens back, rescue hostages captured and make sure that the terrorist organisation will not be able to repeat its attack.
The war between Israel and Hamas has entered the 41st day following the October 7 attack on Israel.
The Israel President said his country's forces have been issuing alerts in Gaza according to the rules of international humanitarian law, and they use leaflets, phone calls and also send text messages for people in the war zone to leave their premises.
"We are not targeting hospitals. Hamas has placed command and control centres under the hospitals (in Gaza), and from there, they are shooting and killing our citizens. So we have the right to defend ourselves. We have the right to go in everywhere they have missiles. They have missiles in living rooms. They have terror machines in all over the civilian premises," he told ANI.
"So what we do, we alert everybody in advance according to the rules of international humanitarian law, and we send millions of leaflets and millions of phone calls we are doing, and we're sending millions of text messages, and we are telling the people in the war zone, please leave your premise so that we can go in, take all this infrastructure from from your home , some of them in my mind were accomplices, some not," he added.
Isaac Herzog said Israel Defence Forces are making sure that none of the patients, the doctors, or the crew, or the operations are stopped.
"I agree there are many civilians in Gaza who are innocent and not involved. But because this place was taken over, we have to remove that. In the hospitals what we are doing is, we are making sure that none of the patients, the doctors, or the crew, or the operations are even stopped," he said.
"On the contrary, we brought into the Al-Shifa hospital a lot of equipment and food and fuel and whatever is necessary to operate the hospital but underneath, in the basement, there is a war machine with missiles with weapons with entire command and control. From there they sent barbaric terrorists to go into Israel, from there they hijacked, abducted civilians from Israel into those premises that's what we do. We have aim to bring back our citizens, we have the aim to rescue the hostages and we have one big aim to not let Hamas to do it again," he said.
The Israel President's remarks came a day after the UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling for "urgent and extended humanitarian pauses" in Hamas-ruled Gaza during the action of Israel forces.
Israel rejected the resolution which did not mention the October 7 attacks in which Hamas killed around 1,400 people and took over 230 hostages.
Answering queries, the Israel President said that said India and his country have been cooperating on combatting terrorism and recalled how the Jewish community was attacked in the Mumbai terror attack.
"I think for a long time we've been sharing know-how on combating terrorism. We remember the Mumbai horrific attacks and how the Jewish community was attacked in Mumbai as well as many from the non-Jewish community. And we always express sorrow. And when we remember that, there's a lot of issues to share. We share in science and technology. We share in doing good to the world in medicine," he said.
Isaac Herzog expressed his message of affection and friendship to the people and leadership of India.
"We have a great message as two great ancient nations on how to contribute to the world and there's a lot of mutual admiration... I want to express a clear message of affection and friendship to the people of India, wherever they are and the leadership of India," he said.
The resolution adopted by UNSC called for "urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors" in Gaza for "a sufficient number of days" to allow full, rapid, safe and unhindered access for UN agencies and partners
It called "for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas and other groups, especially children, as well as ensuring immediate humanitarian access", by the terms of the resolution
The Council, by additional provisions in the text, called on all parties to refrain from depriving the civilian population in Gaza of basic services and aid indispensable to their survival, consistent with international humanitarian law.
The Council, by additional provisions in the text, called on all parties to refrain from depriving the civilian population in Gaza of basic services and aid indispensable to their survival, consistent with international humanitarian law
Twelve members voted in favour of the resolution, none against and there were three abstentions.