Biden officials grilled over reports US bomb was used in Israeli strike on Gaza school

The Biden administration offered more vague sentiments of worry and concern but no concrete response on Monday after a CNN report revealed that at least one US-supplied bomb was used by the Israel Defense Force (IDF) to strike a school where refugees and, allegedly, Hamas militants were sheltering — killing more than 90.

Officials at the State Department and White House were pressed at their respective briefings on whether the US could say definitively that American bombs had been used in the strike at the al-Tabaeen school, which was carried out in the early Saturday morning hours in Gaza’s Al-Daraj neighborhood. Citing Israeli military sources, CNN reported that several smaller bombs were used in the strike, though it wasn’t clear if more than one had been supplied by the US.

Eyewitness accounts reported by Al Jazeera and other media outlets on the ground in Gaza claimed that the strike occurred during dawn prayers, without warning. Women, children, and the elderly were reported among the dead, with bodies described as having been torn apart and found wholly unrecognizable. Israeli officials claimed that 19 militants were killed in the attack.

At the State Department, deputy spokesman Vedant Patel was forced to assure reporters on Monday that the US did have an internal review process to determine how munitions it supplied to other countries were being used, after being pressed repeatedly on the strike and initially telling one journalist that he “wouldn’t speculate” on whether US-made bombs were used.

“I’m not going to get into the specifics of the information that we solicit [from Israel],” said Patel. “What I can just say is that we are engaged with our partners in the IDF about this.”

Patel was questioned by a