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Photo shows North Gaza without aid: child sits on a pile of aid boxes, holding up a jar of food, surrounded by other children and people
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ABC News
16 minutes ago
- ABC News
Top US spokesman who defended Israel now says it 'without doubt' committed war crimes
A prominent Biden administration spokesperson who defended Israel from allegations of war crimes now says Israel has "without a doubt" committed war crimes in Gaza. Matthew Miller, who was the State Department's top spokesperson until early this year, sparred with journalists who raised the allegations or questioned American foreign policy in the Middle East. He has now appeared on a Sky News UK podcast, conceding he believes Israel was responsible for war crimes while he was working in the administration. Asked if Israel was committing genocide, Mr Miller said: "I don't think it's a genocide, but I think it is without a doubt true that Israel has committed war crimes." When interviewer Mark Stone said to him: "You wouldn't have said that from the [State Department press briefing] podium," Mr Miller said: "Yeah, look, because when you're at the podium, you're not expressing your personal opinion. You're expressing the conclusions of the United States government." Mr Miller was the public face of the State Department during the last two years of Joe Biden's presidency, holding regular press conferences in Washington. At times, pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside his home. Like Mr Biden, he publicly criticised moves to hold Israel accountable for alleged war crimes, such as an International Criminal Court (ICC) decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli leaders last November. Those warrants, which remain in force, accuse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant of crimes against humanity and using starvation as a method of warfare. The Trump administration has since imposed sanctions on ICC prosecutors and accused the court of "illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel". The International Court of Justice is separately hearing a genocide case against Israel, which has been brought by South Africa. Israel and its leaders deny all allegations and argue the country is acting in legitimate self-defence after Hamas's October 7 terrorist attack, and that its military takes steps to avoid harming civilians, which Hamas uses as "human shields" and steals aid from. Mr Miller said it was an "open question" whether the Israeli government had pursued a policy to commit war crimes or recklessly abetted them. But it was "almost certainly not an open question" that Israeli soldiers had carried them out, he said. "And the way you judge a democracy is whether they hold those people accountable," he said. "We have not yet seen them hold sufficient numbers of the military accountable." Mr Miller said the thing "that I will always ask questions of myself about" is whether there was more the White House could have done to pressure Israel to agree to a ceasefire sooner. "I think at times there probably was," he said. The Biden administration proposed a ceasefire deal last May, which was implemented in January, but broken when Israel resumed air strikes in Gaza in March. "Now, it's difficult — Israel was not the only … party to this negotiation. You saw Hamas repeatedly move the goalposts," he said. "But you saw Netanyahu move the goalposts as well, and I do think there were times when we should have been tougher on him."
SBS Australia
3 hours ago
- SBS Australia
Three killed, dozens injured after Israeli forces open fire near Gaza aid site, medics say
At least three Palestinians were reportedly killed and dozens wounded by Israeli fire near an aid site in Gaza. The Israeli military said it fired warning shots to deter suspects approaching troops but denied shooting civilians. The alleged shooting is part of a series of deadly incidents near distribution sites. Israeli fire killed at least three Palestinians and wounded dozens of others near an aid distribution site operated by the US-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, local health authorities said. The alleged shooting reportedly occurred at the same location in southern Gaza where witnesses say Israeli forces fired on crowds of aid-seekers a day earlier. The Israeli military said it was aware of reports of casualties and the incident was being thoroughly looked into. It said in a statement that troops had fired warning shots "to prevent several suspects approaching them" about 1 km away from the aid distribution site. The GHF, a private group sponsored by the United States and endorsed by Israel, claimed there had been no fatalities or injuries at its distribution site or the surrounding area. The latest incident in a series of reported shootings of civilians seeking food aid has underscored the volatile system of aid delivery into Gaza, following the easing last month of an almost three-month Israeli blockade. On Sunday, Palestinian and international officials said at least 31 people were killed and dozens wounded near the same site, one of four operated by the GHF in Rafah. At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, relatives of Hussam Wafi, a 37-year-old father-of-six, who was killed near the aid site on Sunday, arrived to pay their last respects before burial. Wafi's brother Ali said the victims were driven by hunger. 'The US and Israel, what do they tell us? Go and get your food and water, and the aid. When the aid arrives, they hit us. Is this fair?" Wafi told Reuters. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Monday he was appalled by reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid in Gaza on Sunday, and called for an independent investigation. The Israeli military denied firing at people gathering to collect aid, and the GHF said Sunday's distribution was carried out without incident, describing reports of deaths as fabricated by Hamas. The GHF said Monday's deliveries raised the number of meals it has distributed since it began operations to nearly six million. The United Nations has said most of Gaza's 2 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade on aid entering the strip. The GHF launched its first distribution sites last week and said it would launch more. Its aid plan, which bypasses traditional aid groups, has come under fierce criticism from the UN and the organisation's own former executive director, who all claim the GHF does not follow humanitarian principles. The Palestinian NGOs Network urged a boycott of what it called the "US-Israeli aid mechanism" in protest over the killings on Sunday.
News.com.au
7 hours ago
- News.com.au
UN chief calls for probe into deaths near Gaza aid site
UN chief Antonio Guterres called Monday for an independent investigation into the killing and wounding of scores of Palestinians near a US-backed aid centre in Gaza the day before. Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli gunfire killed at least 31 people and wounded 176 near the aid distribution site in the southern city of Rafah on Sunday, with medics at nearby hospitals also reporting a deluge of gunshot wound victims. The Israeli military denied firing at people "while they were near or within" the site. But a military source acknowledged "warning shots were fired towards several suspects" overnight about a kilometre away. "I am appalled by the reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid in Gaza yesterday. It is unacceptable that Palestinians are risking their lives for food," Guterres said in a statement, without assigning blame for the deaths. "I call for an immediate and independent investigation into these events and for perpetrators to be held accountable." The Israeli government has worked with the group running the site, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), to introduce a new mechanism for distributing aid in Gaza that has bypassed the longstanding UN-led system. The UN has declined to work with the group out of concerns about its neutrality. - 'Bullets were chasing people' - One 33-year-old who was present on Sunday told AFP it was "around 5 or 5:30 am, before sunrise" when the gunfire broke out at a spot known as the Al-Alam roundabout, where a crowd had gathered from the wee hours of the morning to wait before heading to the GHF centre about a kilometre away. "Of course it was the Israeli army who shot live bullets," said the witness, who declined to be named for fear of Israeli reprisals. "Thousands of people were waiting at Al-Alam roundabout... but the army fired and everyone ran away. There was fear and chaos. I saw with my own eyes martyrs and wounded in the area." Another witness elsewhere in the crowd, 35-year-old Mohammed Abu Deqqa, said "at first, we thought they were warning shots". "But it didn't take long before the shooting intensified. I began to see people lying on the ground, covered in blood. That was around 5:30 am," he said. "People started running, but many couldn't escape. The bullets were chasing people even as they tried to flee." AFP photos taken around 5:40 am showed civilians loading bodies onto donkey carts shortly after sunrise. Gaza civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said teams of rescuers arrived around 6:00 am and began assisting with the dead and wounded, though civilians and other paramedics had already taken some to Nasser hospital and a Red Cross field hospital. - 'Warning shots were fired' - The military on Sunday said an initial inquiry indicated its troops "did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the humanitarian aid distribution site", and urged "media to be cautious with information published" by Hamas. But according to an Israeli military source, "warning shots were fired towards several suspects who advanced towards the troops" overnight. The incident took place "approximately one kilometre away" from the GHF distribution centre, outside of operating hours, the source said. Army spokesman Effie Defrin said Sunday that "Hamas is doing its best, its utmost, to stop us from" distributing aid, and vowed to "investigate each one of those allegations" against Israeli troops. A GHF spokesperson also accused Hamas of circulating "fake reports", saying: "All aid was distributed today without incident." In a video message from Nasser hospital later Sunday morning, visiting British surgeon Victoria Rose described a scene of "absolute carnage", saying "all the bays are full, and they're all gunshot wounds". The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that its field hospital in Rafah received 179 people, including 21 pronounced dead on arrival. The ICRC reported that all the wounded "said they had been trying to reach an aid distribution site", adding that "the majority suffered gunshot or shrapnel wounds". - 'Intense force' - GHF said that as of Monday, it had distributed more than 5.8 million meals' worth of food from its centres. Israel has come under increasing international pressure to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza following a more than two-month blockade on aid that was only recently eased. The UN has warned the entire population is at risk of famine, and has also reported recent incidents of aid being looted, including by armed individuals. Talks aimed at reaching a ceasefire have so far failed to produce a breakthrough. Civil defence spokesman Bassal said 14 people were killed on Monday in an Israeli strike on a house in Jabalia, in the north. The Israeli military also issued an evacuation order for several western parts of Khan Yunis in the south, warning residents it would "operate with intense force" there. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 4,201 people have been killed in the territory since Israel resumed its offensive on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 54,470, mostly civilians. Hamas's 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
