Amid the escalating death toll in Gaza, US officials finally sharpened their tone yesterday, condemning an attack on a UN school as patience with “crazy” Israeli criticism of would-be-peacemaker John Kerry snapped.
“Obviously nothing justifies the killing of innocent civilians seeking shelter in a UN facility,” deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf acknowledged, in some of the toughest US comments since the start of the 23-day fighting in the Gaza Strip.
But while both the White House and the State Department condemned the shelling of a UN-run school in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza in which 16 Palestinians were killed, neither would assign blame to staunch US ally, Israel.
“Innocent Palestinians seeking refuge in these schools should not have shells dropped on them, should not come under attack,” Harf insisted, but despite heated exchanges with reporters she stressed “we don´t know for certain who shelled this school, we need to get all the facts. Effectively pretending that there is some ‘third force’ that is actually shelling Gaza.
