‘ISRAEL HAS RIGHT TO TARGET THOSE CIVILIANS’

‘Israel has a right to try and target those civilians.’ 

These are the words of US Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller to the press after Israel k*lled at least 40 Palestinians—mainly women and children—in a 6 June airstrike on a UN-run school sheltering about 6,000 displaced Palestinians in central Gaza’s Nuseirat camp. Israel claimed it targeted 30 H*mas resistance fighters who allegedly had been using the school as an operations base.

Many Palestinians had sought refuge in central Gaza after being driven north out of Rafah following Israel’s attacks in May. Israel had early on encouraged Palestinians to move south to Rafah in what is now eight months of a military onslaught in the Gaza Strip.

The US has been funding, arming and diplomatically supporting its key West Asia ally in a military onslaught that many say violates international laws and defies International Court of Justice orders. 

‘Claims that armed groups may have been inside the shelter are shocking,’ tweeted Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the UN Palestinian Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). ‘We are, however, unable to verify these claims. Attacking, targeting or using UN buildings for military purposes is a blatant disregard of international humanitarian law.’ 

Then, just two days after the UNRWA school attack, reports say US intelligence helped Israeli troops raid the Nuseirat refugee camp to rescue four Israeli hostages while k*lling at least 274 Palestinians, including dozens of children. It was one of the deadliest days in the latest escalation of Israel’s 76-year-old occupation of Palestine. 

So far, Israel has mainly used US-supplied weaponry to k*ll over 37,000 in Gaza.

Video credit: US Department of State