A prominent Biden administration spokesperson who defended Israel from allegations of war crimes now says Israel has "without a doubt" committed war crimes in Gaza.
Matthew Miller, who was the State Department's top spokesperson until early this year, sparred with journalists who raised the allegations or questioned American foreign policy in the Middle East.
He has now appeared on a Sky News UK podcast, conceding he believes Israel was responsible for war crimes while he was working in the administration.
Asked if Israel was committing genocide, Mr Miller said: "I don't think it's a genocide, but I think it is without a doubt true that Israel has committed war crimes."
When interviewer Mark Stone put to him: "You wouldn't have said that from the [State Department press briefing] podium," Mr Miller said: "Yeah look, because when you're at the podium you're not expressing your personal opinion. You're expressing the conclusions of the United States' government."
Mr Miller was the public face of the State Department during the last two years of Joe Biden's presidency, holding regular press conferences in Washington. At times, pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside his home.
Like Mr Biden, he publicly criticised moves to hold Israel accountable for alleged war crimes, such as an International Criminal Court (ICC) decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli leaders last November.
Those warrants, which remain in force, accuse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant of crimes against humanity and using starvation as a method of warfare.
The Trump administration has since imposed sanctions on ICC prosecutors and accused the court of "illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel".
The International Court of Justice is separately hearing a genocide case against Israel, which has been brought by South Africa.
Israel and its leaders deny all allegations and argue the country is acting in legitimate self-defence after Hamas's October 7 terrorist attack, and that its military takes steps to avoid harming civilians, which Hamas uses as "human shields" and steals aid from.
Mr Miller said it was an "open question" whether the Israeli government had pursued a policy to commit war crimes or recklessly abetted them. But it was "almost certainly not an open question" that Israeli soldiers had carried them out, he said.
"And the way you judge a democracy is whether they hold those people accountable," he said. "We have not yet seen them hold sufficient numbers of the military accountable."
Mr Miller said the thing "that I will always ask questions of myself about" is whether there was more the White House could have done to pressure Israel to agree to a ceasefire sooner.
"I think at times there probably was," he said.
The Biden administration proposed a ceasefire deal last May, which was implemented in January, but broken when Israel resumed air strikes in Gaza in March.
"Now, it's difficult — Israel was not the only … party to this negotiation. You saw Hamas repeatedly move the goal posts," he said.
"But you saw Netanyahu move the goal posts as well, and I do think there were times when we should have been tougher on him."
