WASHINGTON

The US State Department on Monday deflected questions about the killings of two journalists in Israeli attacks on Gaza, including Al Jazeera’s Hossam Shabat, placing blame on Hamas.

“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.”

Two more Palestinian journalists were killed in separate Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, raising the overall death toll since October 2023 to 208, local authorities said on Monday.

Gaza’s government media office said Hossam Shabat, a correspondent for Qatar-based Al Jazeera Mubasher channel, was killed in an Israeli strike in northern Gaza.

Mohammed Mansour, a reporter for Palestine Today TV, was also killed in another airstrike that struck his apartment in the southern city of Khan Younis. His wife and child were also killed in the attack, the broadcaster confirmed in a statement.

The media office held Israel, the US, and their allies, including the UK, Germany, and France, fully responsible for what it described as “a brutal crime.”

More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, in a brutal Israeli military onslaught on Gaza which began in October 2023 following a Hamas-led cross-border attack on Israel.

Less than 1,200 people were killed Oct. 7 in Israel, and hundreds were taken to Gaza as hostages.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.