State Dept Spox Hammered by Reporters After Refusing to Estimate Gaza Civilian Death Toll: ‘Obviously, We Don’t Trust Hamas’
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller was peppered with questions over the Biden administration’s reluctance to say how many civilians have been killed in Gaza.
Miller held a press conference on Thursday, a day after President Joe Biden refused questions about civilian deaths in Gaza while declaring his distrust in the numbers claimed by Palestinians.
The media has been under scrutiny recently for running with unsubstantiated figures put forth by the Hamas terror group, though with the ongoing conflict in Israel, tracking the civilian casualties has been impeded by the chaos of war and both sides of the conflict seeking to manipulate the data.
When Miller was asked on Thursday for his opinion on the numbers from Hamas and Israel, he referred to the U.S. intelligence that contracts claims by Hamas-controlled authorities about the hospital explosion last week in Gaza.
We don’t trust Hamas. We don’t have any way to make an accurate assessment of our own about the number of civilians who have died in Gaza. There’s not an independent body that’s operating in Gaza can provide an accurate number, but we do have skepticism about everything that Hamas says. That said, obviously a number of civilians have died, which is why we’re working to do everything we can to minimize civilian harm and get humanitarian assistance in.
From there, another reporter tried to press Miller for a number of dead civilians, but Miller maintained his position.
“We don’t have a way of accurately assessing the number,” he said.
“There is not a credible body that is in there assessing [the body count],” Miller continued. “We know it’s a significant number of people have died… We just are unable to offer our independent confirmation of the number because there’s no independent body making assessments. The only organization that is currently giving us numbers is Hamas, and obviously, we don’t trust Hamas.”
Miller and the reporter went back and forth on this as the latter asked at what point will the U.S. demand a ceasefire in Israel.
Watch above via Fox News.
