Quds News Network

Washington (Quds News Network)- US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruc blamed Hamas for “every single thing that’s happening” in Gaza when asked Monday about two journalists killed in separate Israeli attacks. “I would say that every single thing that's happening is a result of Hamas and its choices to drag that region down into a level of suffering that has been excruciating and has caused innumerable deaths,” Tammy Bruce told reporters during a press briefing. Bruce further reiterated US support for Israel, stating that Washington stands by Israel’s “needs as it defends itself.” She framed Hamas as an entity that has “destroyed lives for generations and continues to.” Pressed on whether the killing of journalists could be considered a war crime, Bruce declined to provide a direct answer, instead attributed responsibility for all events in Gaza to Hamas. “I'm not going to stand here and declare what's a war crime and what isn't,” she said. “But what we do know is a crime is the mass slaughter of any individuals, certainly the targeting of people simply because of who they are.” Separate Israeli attacks on Gaza killed two media workers on Monday. Hossam Shabat, a journalist who worked for Al Jazeera Mubasher, was killed in northern Gaza. Witnesses said that his car was targeted in the eastern part of Beit Lahiya. Earlier the same day, an Israeli attack on Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, also killed journalist Mohammad Mansour, who worked for Palestine Today. The killing of the two journalists brings the number of media workers killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 2023 to 208, according to the Government Media Office (GMO) in Gaza. In a statement on Monday, the GMO said it “strongly condemns the targeting, killing, and assassination of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli occupation” and called on press advocacy groups to denounce “these systematic crimes against Palestinian journalists and media professionals in Gaza”. The GMO said it held Israel and its main ally, the United States, as well as “the countries participating in the genocide, such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, fully responsible for committing this heinous crime”. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the killing of Shabat and Mansour and called for an independent investigation into whether they were deliberately targeted. “The deliberate and targeted killing of a journalist, of a civilian, is a war crime,” Jodie Ginsberg, the CPJ’s chief executive said, adding the organisation has been investigating several cases in which Israel appears to have deliberately targeted a journalist, knowing them to be a media worker. “That would amount to a war crime. Journalists and civilians must never be targeted”, she said, noting that the CPJ had spoken to Shabat for its own reports on the news developing in northern Gaza because of Israel’s war. On March 18, Israel announced the resumption of its war on Gaza, which has, so far, led to the killing of over 730 civilians, the majority of whom are children. Hundreds more have been injured, with many still missing under the rubble, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Israeli air force jets have carried out a series of attacks across Gaza, targeting multiple areas in the north, center, and south. Reports confirm heavy bombardment of residential homes, schools, and tents housing displaced Palestinians.

US State Department Blames Hamas for Israel’s Assassiantion of Two Palestinian Journalists in Gaza

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