News- Middle East: Former US ambassador to the Israeli-occupied territories, Jacob Lew, has stated that the children of fighters of the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement in Gaza may be regarded as legitimate targets for the Tel Aviv regime.

Lew, who served in that role during the latter part of the Biden administration, made the remarks in an interview with American magazine The New Yorker published on Tuesday.

“The general pattern was that in-the-moment stories were inaccurate, and that the Israeli military and administration establishment were not in a position to fully explain yet what happened after any major attack in Gaza,” he said.

“We could almost never get answers that explained what happened before the story was fully framed in international media, and then when the facts were fully developed, it turned out that the casualties were much lower, the number of civilians was much lower, and, in many cases, the children were children of Hamas fighters, not children taking cover in places.”

“Sorry, what did you just say?” the interviewer asked.

“They were often the children of the fighters themselves,” Lew responded.

“And therefore what follows from that?” the interviewer asked.

“What follows is that whether or not it was a legitimate military target flows from the population that’s there... If you’re the commander of a Hamas unit and you bring your family to a military site, that’s different,” Lew insisted.

Throughout the interview, Lew encountered allegations of protecting the far-right coalition of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Lew defended his stance after the interviewer cited his essay, which stated: “If the politics are hard, blame the United States… Allowing Netanyahu to cite a need to satisfy US demands was crucial then—and remains crucial today.”

Israeli political figures have consistently made public declarations asserting that individuals in Gaza, especially children, cannot be deemed innocent.

The Israeli military has pursued a brutal offensive on Gaza since October 7, 2023, dismissing international appeals for a ceasefire, resulting in the deaths of at least 62,819 Palestinians, predominantly women and children.

The unrelenting airstrikes have ravaged the region and caused significant food shortages.

Source: Press TV