State Department: No evidence Israel is deliberately targeting civilians
In a heated exchange with a reporter, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that while it's proven Hamas deliberately targeted civilians to kill, he said he has not seen evidence that Israel is deliberately killing civilians.
"I'm surprised I don't hear more people saying, 'Why doesn't Hamas lay down its arms? Why doesn't Hamas move out of schools?'" Miller said.
At a different point in the briefing, Miller said Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Israeli officials during his recent trip to Israel that the U.S. would like to see more precision and restraint in Israel's operations in southern Gaza, compared to the initial bombardment in northern Gaza, to limit civilian casualties.
![](https://i.abcnewsfe.com/a/203dc10f-a294-414b-bf1d-5e4bd59b6a68/israel-gaza-17-gty-gmh-231204_1701702478445_hpMain.jpg)
"We've seen a much more targeted request for evacuations here, where the Israeli Defense Forces have identified specific neighborhoods where they plan to conduct military operations, and urged in advance of those operations that people in those neighborhoods to move, rather than telling an entire city or an entire region to vacate their homes. So that is an improvement on what's happened before," he said.
Miller added, "They have instructed them to move to areas that we know are deconfliction zones. It's one of the things we discussed with them last week."
![](https://i.abcnewsfe.com/a/e6b5bdd6-8f66-457d-9fbb-6f08f7ba9f3e/israel-gaza-19-rt-gmh-231204_1701708213325_hpMain.jpg)
-ABC News' Matt Seyler