He continued, “According to eyewitness accountThe Biden administration, the leading sponsor of the Israeli genocide, defended the massacre, claiming Shifa hospital was a legitimate military target and alleging, without substantiation, that Hamas was using it as a headquarters.

“There were Hamas fighters hiding in Al Shifa Hospital,” said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

“Do not believe that this attack was on the hospital,” Miller added. “The attack was on the Hamas fighters that are hiding inside a hospital.”

He added, “I don’t know why I don’t hear more people calling on Hamas to stop going into hospitals.”

White House spokesman Karine Jean-Pierre added, “So look, Hamas should not be operating out of hospitals, we have said that over and over again, and putting civilians at risk.”

“They’re operating out of hospitals, out of hospitals,” she added. “That’s what they’re doing. They’re embedding themselves in the civilian population. This is what they’re doing.”

The White House responded to the massacre by directly green-lighting Israel’s planned assault on Rafah, where over 1 million displaced people are sheltering.

Miller said that the scenario in which “Israel does nothing about the Hamas fighters that continue to exist in Rafah” is not an “acceptable alternative.”

Jean-Pierre added, “We also know that there are Hamas operatives in Rafah as well. But if they’re going to move forward with military operations, we have to have this conversation. We have to understand how they’re going to move forward.”

According to Euro-Med, Israeli forces cleared the Shifa hospital complex of “all working personnel—particularly medical personnel—either by summary execution or forced displacement or arrest.”

The human rights group said that 22 patients were killed in their hospital beds during the siege, under conditions in which severely ill patients were denied food, water and medical care.

Among the medical workers killed in the attack were two doctors, Yusra Al-Maqadmeh and her son Ahmed Al-Maqadmeh.

In a widely shared tribute, Abu Sitta, a doctor who had previously worked in Gaza, wrote, “A beautiful soul and a great surgeon. We worked together in the Great March of Return and the 2021 war and then this recent war. His dedication was unlike anything I have ever seen. We will never forget.”