US airs frustration with Israel's military about strikes in Gaza

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations on Monday accused Israel’s military of striking schools, humanitarian workers and civilians in Gaza in a sign of growing American frustration with its close ally as the war approaches its first anniversary.

Israel has repeatedly said it targets Hamas militants, who often hide with civilians and use them as human shields, in retaliation for the Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and launched the war in Gaza.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield was unusually outspoken against the Israeli military at a U.N. Security Council meeting, saying many of the strikes in recent weeks that injured or killed U.N. personnel and humanitarian workers “were preventable.”

Many council members cited last week’s Israeli strike on a former school turned civilian shelter run by the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, in which six UNRWA staffers were among at least 18 people killed, including women and children.