During a State Department press briefing, reporters grilled Spokesperson Matthew Miller over Israel's actions and negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Let me ask you on the negotiations, why do you continue to have the notion that Israel
00:06is negotiating in good faith, when in fact it killed the chief negotiator of the other
00:11party?
00:12I mean, if you go and shoot the chief negotiator, you kill him, you know?
00:16People must think that you are not very serious about negotiations.
00:20So I will speak to what we've seen in the negotiations, and that is, first of all, an
00:26agreement to the framework, and then some other issues that we are trying to resolve
00:31going forward.
00:33And I'm not going to assess the motives of any of the parties involved.
00:38What I'm going to make clear is the position of the United States, that we have impressed
00:43upon the government of Israel quite directly, that they need to work to get to yes on this
00:47agreement.
00:48Okay.
00:49But, you know, Israel is not even allowing the food to go in.
00:52I mean, things are – aid is rotting, and they're not allowing anything to go in, and
00:58the situation is very, very dire in Gaza.
01:01So if they're not even showing that kind of gesture, why should they be taking –
01:06So it's not – so, Said, I'm going to – not quibble, but I think the – it's
01:10not a premise.
01:12What you stated in the lead-up to your question is not – is incorrect.
01:15It's not that they are blocking aid from coming in.
01:17They are letting aid come to the various crossings, and then we continue to struggle with the
01:22security situation inside Gaza of getting out of the crossings, and that's something
01:26that we're working through with the government of Israel and the various UN agencies.
01:30But ultimately, it is always going to be difficult.
01:33We've seen that now nine months – more than nine months into this conflict, and what
01:36we've seen is it is always going to be difficult because of the unique nature of Gaza and the
01:40unique nature of this conflict to move humanitarian assistance around when you're in the middle
01:44of a conflict between the IDF and a terrorist organization that continues to kind of pop
01:50in and out of civilian infrastructure.
01:53And so that's why we continue to work for a ceasefire, because ultimately, that is the
01:56way to solve this humanitarian crisis that currently plagues the people of Gaza.
02:00And finally, I have one last question.
02:02An Israeli American soldier with a U.S. citizen posted videos showing a detonation of Gaza
02:08homes and mosques and so on.
02:10Is that – in fact, it's something that Amnesty called a war crime.
02:16If this U.S. citizen comes to the United States, should he be arrested?
02:21That's a question for the Justice Department, the State Department.
02:22Justice Department.
02:23But – okay, but is that a war crime if you show that you have done that?
02:26I cannot.
02:27So I can't – there's no way I can take any video devoid of context and pronounce
02:31judgment on whether it's a war crime or not from here.
02:33All right.
02:35Can I just check on one thing on this?
02:36Yeah.
02:37I think it was the third-to-last question that Said asked.
02:38The premise of it was that Israel had killed – had assassinated the top Hamas negotiator.
02:44Is that something that you're willing to accept and put on – say on the record that
02:49it was, in fact, Israel that did it?
02:51Or have I missed something over the course of the last couple of days?
02:53So I will let every country speak to their actions.
02:56The United States, for our part, was not involved in any way.
02:59No, I'm not asking if you were involved.
03:00I'm asking if you accept the premise of the question that Israel did, in fact, do
03:04it, if, in fact, the Israelis have told you that they were responsible.
03:07So I am not going to speak to what any other government may or may not have done.
03:13I will make clear that the United States not only was not involved, but we were not aware
03:16of this incident before it occurred.
03:18Yeah.