Biden defends Israel's hospital raid in Gaza, claiming Hamas uses it as headquarters

ANKARA

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday tried to defend Israel's raid on Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, claiming that the Palestinian group Hamas uses the hospital as their "headquarters."

"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 during a press conference after meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco.

Defending the actions of Israel, which has so far been unable to prove that Gaza's largest hospital was a "headquarters," he said Israel did not go in with a large number of troops and did not carry out a "raid."

Asked what kind of evidence the US has of its claims about Hamas, he declined to go into any detail.

"You have a circumstance where, you know, there is a fair number of Hamas terrorists. Hamas has already said publicly that they plan on attacking Israel again, like they did before, cutting babies' heads off to burning women and children alive," Biden said, repeating a falsehood about an atrocity with infants that even the White House has distanced itself from.

The president added that he is "mildly hopeful" that negotiations to free the estimated 240 hostages being held by Hamas will yield results.

"With regards to when is this (Israeli operation in Gaza) going to stop? I think it's going to stop when Hamas no longer maintains the capacity to murder and abuse and, and just do horrific things to the Israelis," he added.