State Department Spox to CNN: Israel is not doing enough to avoid civilian casualties

The Deputy Spokeswoman to the State Department, Marie Harf, told Wolf Blitzer today that Israel is not doing enough to avoid civilian casualties and said they could be doing more:

BLITZER: You do say that Israel can and should do more to protect civilians in Gaza. What do you mean by that?

HARF: Well, we know this is a conflict zone. We know Gaza is very densely populated and we have said repeatedly that Israel has the right to defend itself. But we have also said that they need to take more steps to prevent civilian casualties. We’ve seen the picture on your network and elsewhere of the scenes here and it is tragic. If you just look at the photos — obviously, we know that more needs to be done and we have communicated that to the Israelis throughout this conflict.

BLITZER: Because the israelis say they do everything they possibly can to avoid civilian casualties and they don’t want to go after civilians, but you say they’re not doing enough, is that right?

HARF: Yes, wolf, that is. We do believe on they could be doing more. And again, the reason Secretary Kerry is so focused on getting a cease-fire in place so Israeli citizens can stop being threatened by these rockets coming in from Gaza and also so the civilians in Gaza aren’t in harm’s way either. So everything the secretary is doing is underpinned by that notion.


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