IDF Spox Wrongly Accuses CNN Anchor of Being ‘Imprecise’ After She Points Out Biden Accused Israel of ‘Indiscriminate Bombing’

After it was reported that three Israeli hostages were killed by friendly fire, an Israeli Defense Forces spokesman tussled on-air with CNN anchor Pamela Brown over President Joe Biden saying that Israel was engaging in “indiscriminate bombing.”

While discussing the deaths of the hostages, which was confirmed by the IDF, Brown and fellow CNN anchor Boris Sanchez spoke with IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, who defended the IDF’s defense strategies as Gaza’s number of civilian casualties continued to climb. But when Brown brought up that even Biden has criticized the “indiscriminate bombing” on the part of Israel, Conricus denied that was true:

Brown: You say that Israel is doing everything, it is abiding by international law, and that it is doing everything to prevent these civilian deaths. But we just heard President Biden, for his part, say that Israel is engaged in “indiscriminate bombing.” And as Boris pointed out, our reporting indicates that Israel has used nearly… Half of its bombs that it’s been using has been these so-called “dumb bombs” that can be, you know, they can have certain kits to make them more precise.

But the bottom line is, you heard what President Biden said. Are you saying that he was wrong to say that Israel is engaged in indiscriminate bombing, and what would be an appropriate ratio to you for civilian deaths? Every civilian death for a Hamas fighter? What would be the number that you would think would be appropriate given the challenges?

Conricus: I think that we have to be a little more careful and a little more precise when we quote the U.S. President, and I don’t think that he said what you said. I think that he referred…

Brown: He did. He said Israel has been engaged with…

Conricus: …to the need to be careful.

Brown: He did say that. He said “indiscriminate bombing.”

Brown was correct. According to the official transcript of remarks made by Biden on Tuesday concerning Israel’s support by the global community as the destruction in Gaza continued:

And, folks, look, if you think about it, one of the things that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] understands, I think, now — but I’m not sure [Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir] and his War Cabinet do, who I’ve spoken to several times — is that Israel’s security can rest on the United States, but right now it has more than the United States. It has the European Union, it has Europe, it has most of the world supporting it. But they’re starting to lose that support by the indiscriminate bombing that takes place.

Conricus’ signal was breaking in and out during the segment, but he did continue to say that Israel was “indeed careful.” He also addressed the issue of the bombs they were using:

And you alluded to… part of what my answer was going to be, and we will have an official response to that, the CNN story about the sources of the munitions and the types of munitions. It will be corrected. And part of it is, yes, as you say, there are various kits that are add-on kits, GPS kits that are added on to various munitions that we use and turn them from inaccurate or imprecise bombs to a very smart and guided and accurate bombs. And hopefully in the future, we will have figures in order to be able to confront that claim as well, professionally and based on numbers and figures.

Watch the full video via CNN.