The U.S. vice president added that the Jewish state has the right to go after terrorists but “an important responsibility to avoid civilian casualties.”
By Mike Wagenheim, JNS
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters on Saturday that “there are far too many civilians who have been killed” in Gaza when asked, during an event in Phoenix, for her reaction to an Israeli airstrike earlier in the day.
“After we received clear intelligence of the threat posed by these terrorists, and in accordance with international humanitarian law, we took numerous steps to mitigate the risk to civilians,” the Israel Defense Forces said of the strike. “The IDF conducted a precision strike against the terrorists in one specific building of the compound—an area where according to our intelligence, no women and children were present.”
Earlier in the day, the IDF said that it and the Israeli air force “struck terrorists operating in a Hamas command and control center, which was embedded inside a mosque in the Al-Taba’een school compound.” It confirmed that “at least 19 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were eliminated.”
“The strike was carried out using three precise munitions, which, according to professional analysis, can not cause the amount of damage that is being reported by the Hamas-run Government Information Office in Gaza. Furthermore, no severe damage was caused to the compound where the terrorists were situated,” the IDF added. “Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of a small warhead, aerial surveillance, and intelligence information.”
CNN reported that “more than 90” Palestinians were killed, citing “local officials.” The Associated Press reported “more than 80” Gazans were killed, quoting “Palestinian health authorities.” The Hamas terrorist organization controls Palestinian health offices.
It wasn’t clear if Harris was also responding to Hamas-run Gazan health authority statistics when she said on Saturday that too many civilians have been killed.
“I mean, Israel has a right to go after the terrorists that are Hamas,” she said, before departing Phoenix as part of a presidential campaign swing. “But as I have said many, many times, they also have, I believe, an important responsibility to avoid civilian casualties.”
Hamas has often severely inflated its published death tolls, which are frequently published almost immediately after IDF strikes. The international media and diplomatic community generally cites those figures in an unchallenged manner, anyway.
Asked what she would say to those calling for an arms embargo or more limited arms transfers to Israel, Harris demurred, turning to the most recent push for a ceasefire and hostage deal, which was the focus of a joint statement that the United States, Egypt and Qatar published on Thursday.
“First and foremost, the president and I have been working on this around the clock,” she said, of U.S. President Joe Biden. “We need to get the hostages out. We need a hostage deal, and we need a ceasefire. And I can’t stress that strongly enough, it needs to get done. The deal needs to get done. It needs to get done now.”
On Saturday afternoon, Sean Savett, a spokesman for the National Security Council, stated that “we are deeply concerned about reports of civilian casualties in Gaza following a strike by the Israel Defense Forces on a compound that included a school.”
“We are in touch with our Israeli counterparts, who have said they targeted senior Hamas officials, and we are asking for further details,” Savett said. “We know Hamas has been using schools as locations to gather and operate out of, but we have also said repeatedly and consistently that Israel must take measures to minimize civilian harm.”
“We mourn every Palestinian civilian lost in this conflict, including children, and far too many civilians continue to be killed and wounded,” he said. “This underscores the urgency of a ceasefire and hostage deal, which we continue to work tirelessly to achieve.”
Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wrote that “barely had the smoke cleared over another precision operation by the Israelis to take out key terrorists, and the usual suspects were already lining up to condemn them, with the media amplifying false claims by Hamas without any fact-checking.”
“How many Hamas allegations have to be proven false before the media will start doing its job?” he wrote.
Mark Penn, a Democratic pollster who advised both Bill and Hillary Clinton, wrote that “Hamas makes wild claims and Harris immediately responds to them as facts.”
“Any serious presidential candidate would have said they were getting the facts on the Israeli strike (which Israel is providing) and then condemned Iran for the attack on U.S. troops in Syria and possibly even mentioned the mass drone attack by Hezbollah,” he wrote.