Former State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the US could have done more to prevent Gaza deaths.
Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza, according to a former spokesman for the United States Department of State.
Matthew Miller told the Sky News Trump100 podcast on Monday that he is “without a doubt” certain that Israel has committed war crimes in the conduct of its military offensive in the Palestinian enclave.
Miller, who until this year regularly defended the pro-Israeli policies of then-President Joe Biden, however, stressed that he did not believe genocide was being carried out.
But he suggested that there was tension within the administration over the US failure to put more pressure on Israel.
According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, at least 54,381 Palestinians have been killed and 124,054 wounded. Almost all of the enclave’s 2.3 million people have been displaced, while an Israeli blockade threatens famine.
During his time with the State Department, Miller repeatedly clashed with journalists who questioned the US response to Israel’s handling of Gaza, including repeated bombings of medical facilities and refugee camps sheltering Palestinian civilians, as well as the continued US military aid to Israel and possible violations of international law.
In one incident last November, Miller was rebuked for laughing during a question about Israel blocking aid to Gaza.
Miller stressed in the interview that, as spokesman, he was not advocating his own opinion but expressing the official stance of Biden’s administration.
“You are a spokesperson for the president, the administration, and you espouse the positions of the administration,” he said. “And when you’re not in the administration, you can just give your own opinions.”
Asked about his experience handling the issue, Miller said there were “small and big” disagreements within the Biden administration over how to deal with Israel.
“There were disagreements all along the way about how to handle policy. Some of those were big disagreements, some of those were little disagreements,” he said.
In particular, he hinted at tensions between Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Although the former official said he does not believe Israel is carrying out genocide in Gaza, he admitted that “there probably was” more that the US could have done to pressure Israel to stop the war and prevent the killing of “thousands of … innocent civilians who didn’t want this war”.
