US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruc blamed Hamas for “every single thing that’s happening” in Gaza, relieving Israel and its arms supplier the US of any blame for the tens of thousands of civilian deaths.
“I would say that every single thing that’s happening is a result of Hamas and its choices to drag that region down into a level of suffering that has been excruciating and has caused innumerable deaths,” Tammy Bruce told reporters during a press briefing, after being asked about Israel’s targeting of journalists in the enclave.
Bruce further reiterated US support for Israel, stating that Washington stands by Israel’s “needs as it defends itself.”
She framed Hamas as an entity that has “destroyed lives for generations and continues to.”
Pressed on whether the killing of journalists could be considered a war crime, Bruce declined to provide a direct answer, instead attributed responsibility for all events in Gaza to Hamas.
“I’m not going to stand here and declare what’s a war crime and what isn’t,” she said. “But what we do know is a crime is the mass slaughter of any individuals, certainly the targeting of people simply because of who they are.”
Bruce failed to condemn Israel’s decimation of the Gaza Strip and killing of over 50,000 Palestinians, the vast majority women and children, in what the Interantional Court of Justice (ICJ) has deemed plausible genocide.
Separate Israeli attacks on Gaza killed two media workers on Monday. Hossam Shabat, a journalist who worked for Al Jazeera Mubasher, was killed in a targeted attack in northern Gaza. Witnesses said that his car was targeted in the eastern part of Beit Lahiya. Earlier the same day, an Israeli attack on Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza, killed journalist Mohammad Mansour, who worked for Palestine Today.
The killing of the two journalists brings the number of media workers killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 2023 to 208, according to the Government Media Office (GMO).
In a statement on Monday, the GMO said it “strongly condemns the targeting, killing, and assassination of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli occupation” and called on press advocacy groups to denounce “these systematic crimes against Palestinian journalists and media professionals in Gaza”.
The GMO said it held Israel and its main ally, the United States, as well as “the countries participating in the genocide, such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, fully responsible for committing this heinous crime.”
READ: Gaza: 15,613 children killed by Israel since 7 October 2023