2:06
yesterday and uh and again um it it it
2:11
cannot be uh going forward what we've
2:14
seen in the past in terms of the the
2:16
type of activities that we've seen in uh
2:19
in Gaza City and in conun uh far too
2:22
many civilians have have uh have been
2:25
killed as a result of combat operations
2:27
and and they they need to get civilians
2:30
out of out of that battle space around
2:32
Rafa all right so the United States has
2:34
an important responsibility here because
2:37
we are the ones giving the Israeli
2:39
Defense Forces the bombs that they are
2:42
using to destroy homes and hospitals and
2:45
refugee camps at the president's
2:47
direction through his February National
2:50
Security memorandum the Department of
2:52
Defense and the state department are
2:55
currently assessing whether Israel is in
2:58
compliance with International
3:00
humanitarian law there are serious
3:02
concerns that Israel is not complying
3:05
with International humanitarian law
3:08
according to recent investigations by
3:10
plus 972 and the guardian Israeli
3:13
intelligence officials allege that the
3:17
IDF often deliberately prefers to wait
3:20
until its targets are at home among
3:22
their children and neighbors to launch a
3:24
strike secretary Austin I understand
3:27
that civilians are often at risk in a
3:30
time of War but would the United States
3:33
systematically choose to execute on
3:35
Military strikes that are more likely to
3:38
kill civilians including
3:41
children absolutely not just the
3:43
opposite U you know we um routinely go
3:46
out of our way to make sure that uh we
3:48
do everything we can to uh minimize
3:51
civilian casualties uh even with that uh
3:55
even with extraordinary efforts there
3:56
will be um collateral damage and
4:00
casualties from time to time but it's
4:02
it's something that we really work hard
4:03
to uh to prevent yeah thank you Mr
4:06
secretary US policy explicitly states
4:09
that we expect our allies to meet the
4:12
same standards that we do to prevent and
4:14
mitigate civilian harm Israel is failing
4:18
to do that in its bombing campaign under
4:21
your leadership DOD has made significant
4:24
progress in putting policies in place to
4:27
protect
4:28
civilians but we also need to push our
4:31
closest allies to meet the same standard
4:34
and to cut off us support if they refuse
4:36
to do so thank you Mr chairman thank you
4:40
very much senator
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