‘You Have Nothing to Say?’ AP Reporter Grills State Department Spox on Israel’s Flattening of Gaza University
Associated Press reporter Matt Lee grilled Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller about a widely circulated video of Al-Israa University being demolished in an enormous explosion.
In a statement, the university said Israeli forces seized the campus 70 days ago and were using it as a base. It is unclear when the explosion occurred. As the Associated Press has noted, Israeli soldiers have filmed themselves blowing up structures in controlled demolitions since the Israeli invasion two months ago. Israel has been carrying out a military campaign in Gaza in response to the Oct 7. terrorist attacks launched by Hamas, which controls Gaza. Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis and abducted 240 others.
In response, Israel has flattened much of Gaza and killed more than 24,000 Palestinians in the small territory of 2.3 million people, roughly half of whom are children. About 85% of Gazans have been displaced.
In a press briefing on Thursday, Lee asked Miller why Israel blew up Al-Israa University in what appeared to be a controlled demolition:
LEE: I don’t know if you’ve seen the video. It’s pretty widely available.
MILLER: I have seen the video.
LEE: I mean, it looks like a controlled demolition. It looks like what we do here in this country when we’re taking down an old hotel or a stadium. And you have nothing to say? Nothing to say about this? I mean, to do that kind of an explosion, you need to be in there. You have to put the explosives down. And it takes a lot of planning and preparation to do. And if there was a threat from this particular facility, they wouldn’t have been able to do it.
MILLER: So, I have seen the video. I can tell you that it is something we are raising with the government of Israel, as we do often–
LEE: Well, raising as what?
MILLER: To ask questions and find out what the underlying situation is, as we often do when we see reports of this nature. But I’m not able to characterize the actual facts on the ground before hearing that.
LEE: Yeah, but you saw the video.
MILLER: I did see the video. I don’t know–
LEE: It looks like, you know, a bridge being imploded.
MILLER: I don’t know what was under that building. I don’t know what was inside–
LEE: Yeah, but it doesn’t matter what was under the building because they obviously got in there to put the explosives down to do it in a way that they did.
MILLER: Again, I’m glad you have factual certainty about it. I just, I just–
LEE: I don’t. All I have is what I saw in the video and I think you guys saw it too.
MILLER: We did see it and I can say that we have raised it with the government of Israel.
LEE: It’s not troubling to you?
MILLER: We are always troubled by the, by the, by any degradation of civilian infrastructure in Gaza. But without knowing the actual underlying circumstances, I’m a little hesitant, I think, for reasons that should be understandable to pass definitive judgment on it from this podium.
For several weeks, U.S. media has periodically reported that President Joe Biden is frustrated that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not doing more to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza.
Despite this, Biden has bypassed Congress twice to green-light arms sales to Israel and vetoed a binding resolution calling for a ceasefire at the U.N. Security Council.
“At every juncture, Netanyahu has given Biden the finger,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen told Axios this week. “They are pleading with the Netanyahu coalition, but getting slapped in the face over and over again.”
Watch above via the Department of State.
