State Department Spokesperson Reports: ‘The US Policy Has Not Changed’ Regarding Rafah

5 months ago

During a press briefing on Tuesday, State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller answered reporter questions on US foreign policy.

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Transcript

00:00 they're investigating and we are pressing them for results.

00:02 Can I just ask you a specific question on that?

00:04 Over the weekend, it was reported that there was a US official who said that Israel told the US

00:10 that it used the precision munition to hit the target, but that they believed it was shrapnel

00:16 from the explosion that ignited a fuel tank nearby and started the fire. I am no military expert,

00:22 but I don't understand how shrapnel could have flown 1.7 kilometers in order to ignite that fire.

00:28 I am not familiar with that conversation. All I can tell you is what they have said publicly,

00:35 which is it might have been that there was a Hamas weapons depot located near the strike

00:40 and that exploded and that led to the fire. I don't know if that's true. I'm not sure if Israel

00:44 knows that's true at this point. They've only conducted a preliminary investigation. But the

00:47 point of all of this is that question needs to be answered very much and we expect them to conduct a

00:52 full transparent open investigation to answer it. Okay. And then just when it comes to

00:58 the continuation of Israel using precision guided munitions in Rafa, at this point,

01:04 the US still supports that? We have made no change to our policy.

01:07 So just, is it a yes or no? We made no change to our policy. We have made clear that if there was

01:13 a full scale military operation, there would be some change, but as of yet, it's not a change.

01:17 We do support, as we always have, their ability to go after legitimate Hamas terrorists, and that,

01:24 of course, includes using American provided weapons, but we expect them to do so in a way

01:30 that minimizes civilian harm. And then just the last question,

01:33 with regard to the reports of the Israeli tanks that are in central Rafa right now, I know you

01:39 said you haven't verified those reports. Has the US asked Israel about those reports and an

01:46 explanation for why those tanks might be in central Rafa? So we are in constant dialogue with them

01:52 about their military operations and potential military operations in Rafa. I'm not going to

01:56 get into any specific conversations, but we are constantly interrogating them about what they're

02:02 doing and what they're planning. So it's safe to say you've interrogated them?

02:04 I'm just not going to go beyond that. Go ahead, Naf.

State Department Spokesperson Reports: ‘The US Policy Has Not Changed’ Regarding Rafah

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