MSNBC's Ana Cabrera Reports
November 14, 2023
10:09 a.m. Eastern
ANA CABRERA: And now to the breaking news out of Gaza this morning where Israeli airstrikes once again pummeled the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza. The intense fighting in that area also continues to pose growing danger to hospitals. With evacuations now nearly impossible and at that main Al-Shifa hospital it has been nearly a cemetery according to the World Health Organization. President Biden urging more to be done to protect Gaza's hospitals.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: It's my hope and expectation that there will be a less intrusive action relative to the hospital. (editing jump) -- the hospital must be protected.
CABRERA: Joining us now from Tel Aviv is NBC's Josh Lederman. Josh, what's the latest on the Al-Shiba hospital?
JOSH LEDERMAN: Well, Ana, the W.H.O. said it is nearly a cemetery, and today it has become literally a cemetery. Right now, medical officials at the largest hospital in Gaza are in the process of burying bodies on the site of the hospital. The medical authorities there saying there are in the neighborhood of 150 bodies that have been amassing due to the violence at that hospital in recent days. They have been struggling to find a period of time when they can safely exit the building of the hospital to dig a hole in the ground to bury these bodies before they further deteriorate with medical official there telling us that about 100 of the medical staff there ran out of food last night, and so the situation is extremely dire as there are urgent efforts right now to try to evacuate some of the newborn babies there, many of whom need incubators that now no longer have electricity because the generators have run out. Israel has said it's willing to provide mobile incubators to be used to evacuate those patients, but, according to the Red Cross. As of now, no deal has been worked out to actually facilitate that. And so, for the patients that are stuck there, it is a very precarious situation.
CABRERA: When we hear that when we see these pictures, it spurs a lot of emotion clearly. President Biden has been facing criticism from within his party from the U.S. administration, in fact, about the U.S. response to this war. What can you tell us about that?
LEDERMAN: Yeah, Ana, it is images like the ones that we have been showing that have been prompting some 400 members of the Biden administration to sign an open letter calling on President Biden to demand a ceasefire from Israel. These represent workers from about 40 government agencies including the national security agencies, and they feel uncomfortable, according to their letter -- which was signed anonymously -- with the failure of the administration to say they want to see a stop in the fighting because, remember, the Biden administration has increasingly said too many Palestinians are dying. They want Israel to protect civilian lives, but the Biden administration has notably stopped short of doing what France, any of the Arab nations and others are doing and saying it is time for a ceasefire, Ana.
(...)
10:17 a.m.
CABRERA: President Biden is saying the hospitals must be protected in Gaza. We have this reporting from the World Health Organization that says that the main hospital is no longer functioning. They are saying it is nearly a cemetery right now because it doesn't have power. Three babies have died. One doctor telling us that they expect many more babies to die because they don't have water to prepare milk. They have no electricity to keep them warm. They don't have staff to care for them. Can you tell us what steps Israel is taking right now to help the situation inside the hospitals?
MARK REGEV, FORMER ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED KINGDOM: We proposed a number of steps because obviously we don't see patients in the hospital and definitely don't see babies as our enemy. On the contrary, we want to facilitate their welfare. And we've taken a number of steps. First and foremost, we've offered to help in the evacuation of all the patients in the hospital, including the babies. We've even got together incubators so the babies who need incubators can use those incubators when they're evacuated. We've also supplied fuel for the hospital generators -- specifically enough fuel for the generator that gives the electricity for the incubators because, of course, no one wants to see pictures of these babies. We don't want to see them suffer the way they have been. But, to be frank, Hamas is not interested in finding solutions. Hamas has torpedoed every solution we've put on the table. It's clear that they want those pictures of suffering babies. They want those pictures because they think that's the way to put pressure on Israel for a ceasefire. From their point of view, they're being logical. They want that ceasefire because we're hitting them hard.
CABRERA: So what you're doing -- you mentioned sending the incubators as well as helping with evacuations with some patients, but my understanding is that there's fighting all around the hospital, making evacuations nearly impossible. And incubators don't work if there's no electricity. We're hearing from doctors that the fuel that you say was provided -- which I believe the IDF said was about 300 liters of fuel that was left in a spot for hospital workers to obtain. We're hearing from the hospital, they need about 500 -- 500 liters per hour to keep things up and running.
REGEV: Ana, what we've done is we've provided fuel for the hospital, and Hamas has forbidden hospital staff to take it. Now, it has to be remembered, this is Gaza. This is a despotic regime run by Hamas. The hospital chief is a Hamas appointee, and they cannot do anything or say anything that is not in accordance with what Hamas wants. Now, we moved the fuel -- I think it was something like 200 yards from the hospital, and we said, "Come and pick it up," and they refuse to do so, and they come with all these excuses. But the fuel is there for them to take for the generators. And it's the same with the evacuation. We're willing to facilitate evacuation. When they say, "They're shooting," it means Hamas is shooting. They don't want to allow an evacuation.
Once again, there is no reason for this suffering. This is only happening because this is a Hamas-manufactured crisis. They want the crisis for the pressure on Israel to cease the operation. I'm old enough to remember, when Saddam Hussein in Iraq under the Clinton administration, he would take journalists into Iraqi hospitals, and he'd tell everyone that the President, Bill Clinton, and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright are murdering Iraq's children through the sanctions. It's the same playbook. This is a dictator -- an extremist group. Hamas tells the people, "Oh, look at the terrible Israelis -- what they're doing." No. This is being done by Hamas who, first and foremost, set up military facilities, their bases, their tunnels, their rocket-launching sites underneath hospital -- a subterranean terror network. And they're the ones who've endangered the hospital while we're doing our best to try to safeguard the people in the hospital.
CABRERA: So if that's the case, can Hamas be eliminated if those hospitals aren't completely evacuated?
REGEV: The answer is yes. We can eliminate Hamas. What we're doing is our soldiers are on the ground acting in a very, very surgical way. They're trying to be as pinpointed as they can, microtargeting Hamas. It's difficult but not impossible. Of course we prefer that everyone could be evacuated. That would save lives. But Hamas is preventing that from happening. They want those hospital patients, including the babies, as human shields for their terror machine.
CABRERA: The IDF says there is evidence some hostages were taken to a different hospital -- the Rantisi children's hospital -- after October 7. So what kind of evidence is there? And what more can you now share about the current state of hostage negotiations?
(...)