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The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations on Monday accused Israel’s military of striking schools, humanitarian workers and civilians in Gaza in a sign of growing American frustration with its close ally as the war approaches its first anniversary.
Israel has repeatedly said it targets Hamas militants, who often hide with civilians and use them as human shields, in retaliation for the Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and launched the war in Gaza.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield was unusually outspoken against the Israeli military at a U.N. Security Council meeting, saying many of the strikes in recent weeks that injured or killed U.N. personnel and humanitarian workers “were preventable.”
Many council members cited last week’s Israeli strike on a former school turned civilian shelter run by the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, in which six UNRWA staffers were among at least 18 people killed, including women and children.
Israel said it targeted a Hamas command-and-control center in the compound, and Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Danny Danon, asserted Monday that Hamas militants were killed in the strike. He named four, claiming to the council that they worked for UNRWA during the day and Hamas at night.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an independent investigation.
Thomas-Greenfield told council members that the U.S. will keep raising the need for Israel to facilitate humanitarian operations in the Palestinian territory and protect humanitarian workers and facilities like the UNRWA shelter.
She also reiterated U.S. “outrage” at the death of Turkish American activist Aysenur Eygi, who was shot and killed during a protest in the West Bank last week. Israeli Defense Forces said it likely killed Eygi by mistake, and the government has begun a criminal investigation.
“The IDF is a professional military and knows well how to ensure that incidents such as these do not happen,” the U.S. envoy said.
Thomas-Greenfield said the United States expects Israeli military leaders to implement “fundamental changes” in their operations — including to their rules of engagement and procedures to ensure that military operations do not conflict with humanitarian activities and do not target schools and other civilian facilities.
“We have also been unequivocal in communicating to Israel that there is no basis — absolutely none — for its forces to be opening fire on clearly marked U.N. vehicles as recently occurred on numerous occasions,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
At the same time, she said Hamas is also hiding in — and in some cases, taking over or using — civilian sites, which poses “an ongoing threat.”
She said it underscores the urgency of reaching a cease-fire and hostage release deal in Gaza. While the United States works with fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar to try to get both sides “to agree that enough is enough,” she said, “this is ultimately a question of political will" and difficult compromises.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to Egypt this week for talks partly about refining a proposal to present to Israel and Hamas.
The United States urges “all council members with influence over Hamas to join others in pressing its leaders to stop stalling, make these compromises, and accept the deal without delay,” Thomas-Greenfield.
She spoke after the top U.N. humanitarian official in Gaza said the territory is “hell on Earth” for its more than 2 million people, calling the lack of effective protection for civilians “unconscionable.”
Sigrid Kaag, the U.N. senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, told council members and reporters that the war has turned the territory "into the abyss.”
Over 41,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel’s offensive, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Humanitarian operations are being impeded by lawlessness, Israeli evacuation orders, fighting and difficult conditions for aid workers that include Israeli denials of access, delays, a lack of safety and security, and “poor logistical infrastructure,” Kaag said.
Danon insisted that Israel's humanitarian efforts “are unparalleled” for a country forced to go to war and urged the Security Council and the U.N. “to speak to the facts.”
Over 1 million tons of aid have been delivered via more than 50,000 trucks and nearly 1 million land crossings, he said, adding that hardly a fraction have been stopped.
When asked about Danon’s statement, Kaag pointed to recent strikes on humanitarian convoys and schools and health facilities where Israel had received prior notification.
“It’s not about trucks. It’s about what people need,” she said. “We’re way, way off what people need, not only daily, but also what we would all consider a dignified human life.”
