White House refuses to say if Israel's strikes on Gaza refugee camp were legitimate

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The White House refused to say Thursday whether a series of Israeli airstrikes on a Palestinian refugee camp in the Gaza Strip comport with the laws of war, as UN experts warn of a "brazen violation of international law."

Asked if the Jabaliya refugee camp was a legitimate target for Israel to attack, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said, "I'm not in a position to say it is or it isn't."

"As I said, these are questions for the Israeli defense forces. These are their operations, and they, and only they, can speak to their targeting decisions in the way they're conducting the operations," he said.

"What we are going to do is make sure that they've got the tools and capabilities, including our perspectives and lessons that we've learned in this kind of warfare as they venture into these operational decisions because they have a legitimate threat by Hamas, an organization that wants to wipe them off the map. At the same time, because you can do both, we're going to make sure that we're doing everything we can to help them minimize civilian casualties and get humanitarian assistance in," he added.

Asked if the US bears responsibility for Israel's strikes because it is continuing to send arms to Tel Aviv amid the ongoing invasion of the Gaza Strip, Kirby said, "We're not making the targeting decisions. The Israeli defense forces are making the decisions."

Earlier Thursday, UN experts said Israeli airstrikes on Jabaliya are a "brazen violation of international law" and a "war crime."

"The Israeli airstrike on a residential complex in the Jabaliya refugee camp is a brazen violation of international law – and a war crime," a group of experts, which contains seven UN special rapporteurs, said in a statement.

"Attacking a camp sheltering civilians, including women and children, is a complete breach of the rules of proportionality and distinction between combatants and civilians," they added.

The Israeli military has expanded its air and ground attacks in Gaza, which has been under relentless airstrikes since a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 that killed more than 1,400 Israelis.

Nearly 10,600 people have since been killed in the conflict, including at least 9,061 Palestinians.

Basic supplies are running low for the 2.3 million residents in Gaza due to Israel's "full siege," in addition to the large number of casualties and displacements.