US says IDF operation in Shifa highlights failure to find viable alternative to Hamas

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller reiterates the Biden administration’s belief that the IDF’s counterterror operation in Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital highlights Jerusalem’s failure to advance a viable alternative to Hamas, which has led the terror group to return to areas of the Strip that were previously cleared.

Asked about the Shifa operation during a press briefing, Miller first stresses that Hamas is the one hiding behind civilians and operating from within hospitals and other civilian infrastructure.

“You shouldn’t have to clear Hamas from a hospital once, let alone twice,” Miller adds, lamenting how quickly the terror group was able to return to the hospital after the IDF cleared the site in the earlier months of the conflict.

Still, he adds that as a general policy, the US does not want to see Israel operating inside hospitals.

“What we have been saying all along is the need for Israel to have a sustainable long-term strategy when it comes to Gaza — that it’s not enough to just clear certain neighborhoods or hospitals or any other geographic areas or buildings of Hamas. They need to have a long-term, sustainable strategy that is not just a security strategy, but also a political strategy if they really want to secure the future of Israel against the terror that has emanated from Gaza,” Miller says.

The US, along with much of the international community, backs replacing Hamas in Gaza with a reformed Palestinian Authority as part of a broader diplomatic initiative that includes the establishment of a pathway to an eventual two-state solution and the normalization of relations between Arab countries in the region with Israel.