Key Points
- A former US state department spokesperson has said it's "without a doubt true" that Israel has committed war crimes.
- Matthew Miller has acknowledged he didn't use similar language while in the role, between 2023 and 2025.
- "When you're at the podium, you're not expressing your personal opinion," Miller said.
One of the former Biden administration's top spokespeople says Israel "without a doubt" committed war crimes in Gaza during his time in the job.
Matthew Miller was the spokesperson for the US state department from 2023 up until early this year, when Donald Trump took office.
During that time, Miller clashed with journalists on multiple occasions when pressed about whether Israel had violated international humanitarian law with its military actions in Gaza since October 2023.
In 2024, Miller criticised the International Criminal Court's (ICC) decision to seek arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials accused of bearing responsibility for war crimes allegedly committed in Gaza.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan sought arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three Hamas officials.
The ICC accused Netanyahu and Gallant of the "war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts".
"We submit that the crimes against humanity charged were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population pursuant to State policy. These crimes, in our assessment, continue to this day," Khan said at the time. The warrants remain active.
Separately, South Africa has also brought a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, accusing it of genocide.
Israel has repeatedly denied accusations it has committed war crimes or genocide throughout its war in Gaza.
"We have made clear that we do not believe the ICC has jurisdiction in this case and oppose their investigation," Miller said in May.
Matthew Miller frequently clashed with journalists in his time as US state department spokesperson. Source: Getty / Anadolu
Asked by Sky News podcast host Mark Stone if he believed Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, Miller replied: "I don't think it's a genocide, but I think it is without a doubt true that Israel has committed war crimes."
When Stone responded that Miller wouldn't have said that when he was speaking to journalists at the podium, Miller said: "When you're at the podium, you're not expressing your personal opinion."
"You're expressing the conclusions of the United States government. The United States government had not concluded that [Israel] committed war crimes. Still have not concluded that."
Miller said he believed it was an "open question" as to whether the Israeli government itself had deliberately pursued a policy to commission war crimes, but it was "almost certainly not" an open question that Israeli soldiers had committed individual war crimes.
He said Israel had not yet held "sufficient numbers of the military accountable" for alleged criminal behaviour by Israeli soldiers.
Israel started its offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on communities in southern Israel on October 7, 2023 which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli tallies, with around 250 people taken as hostages into Gaza.
Israel's campaign has devastated much of Gaza, killing more than 54,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in Gaza, as well as destroying most buildings and leaving much of the population now living in shelters in makeshift camps.
— With additional reporting by Reuters
