US says independent Gaza war crimes investigations remain ongoing

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - US investigations into potential Israeli war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip are ongoing, the State Department said Tuesday.

Those probe are "separate and apart" from several inquests being carried out by Israel at Washington's behest, spokesperson Matthew Miller said in response to a question from Anadolu.

"They have a number of open investigations into potential war crimes. I don't want to pass judgment on how those investigations have been conducted until they have concluded, and there are a number of them that are ongoing," said Miller.

"Separate and apart from what Israel is doing, the United States is undertaking its own reviews of potential war crimes in this conflict, and those reviews are ongoing. That's separate from anything that Israel is doing," he added.

It is unclear when the US investigations will conclude.

The comments come after the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) medical charity said a sixth staff member has been killed since the current war broke out in October. Fadi Al-Wadiya, 33, was killed while he was biking to work in Gaza City in an attack that killed five others, including three children, according to the international health NGO.

“Killing a healthcare worker while on his way to provide vital medical care to wounded victims of the endless massacres across Gaza is beyond shocking; it’s cynical and abhorrent,” Caroline Seguin, MSF operations manager for Palestine, said in a statement.

MSF said it is seeking to "verify the details of this horrific incident."

Miller did not comment on the attack when asked by Anadolu, but said, "We mourn the loss of any civilian life."

Israel's nearly nine-month war on the besieged Gaza Strip has left the coastal territory in ruins with broad swathes reduced to rubble.

More than 37,600 Palestinians have been killed, the vast majority of whom have been women and children.

An Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack that precipitated the current war left less than 1,200 people dead and more than 200 others taken back to Gaza as hostages.

Nearly all of the enclave's 2.4 million people have been internally displaced amid acute shortages of daily necessities, and medical supplies and equipment.