US State Department slams media for taking Hamas claims on hospital blast ‘at face value’

US State Department spokesperson Matt Miller knocks media organizations after many of them initially reported the Hamas-run health ministry claim that the IDF was responsible for the Tuesday Gaza City hospital blast at “face value.”

“I don’t want to play media critic here, but I will say that I do think that this event was a reminder that everyone, and this includes government officials and everyone who watches this conflict, [that] it would be wise for all of us to take a beat and pause and collect all the information before choosing to decide what we believe and what we don’t,” Miller says during a press briefing.

“I saw a number of reports… that took Hamas’s word at face value — the word of a terrorist organization,” Miller says.

A reporter responds to Miller that much of the media’s skepticism of US and Israeli claims stems from assertions that were made after 9/11 “that took us to war in Iraq on a lie, which was defended on a very high level, including behind [Miller’s] podium.”

Miller retorts that while Israel has presented significant evidence to the public backing its claim that the Gaza hospital blast was caused by an errant Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket, Hamas has failed to do the same even as it continues to blame Israel for the incident in which it says hundreds were killed.