Gaza crisis: Obama administration accuses Israel of not protecting civilians

The Obama administration accused Israel on Thursday of failing to do all it can to prevent civilian casualties in Gaza during cross-border attacks.

Noting the deaths a day earlier of four boys who were killed on a Gaza beach by an Israeli strike, the State Department said the high civilian death toll in Gaza has been "heartbreaking." Three more children were killed in Gaza on Thursday.

Still, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki also criticized Hamas militants in Gaza who continue to fire rockets and mortars into Israel, prolonging the latest round of violence in the Mideast that has so far killed 235 Palestinians and at least one Israeli.

"I don't think we've made any secret about our strong concern about the actions of Hamas, the indiscriminate rocket attacks, the targeting of civilians," Psaki said. "And that concern remains."

Of the Gaza beach attacks that killed four cousins on Wednesday, Psaki called the attack "horrifying."

"The tragic event makes clear that Israel must take every possible step to meet its standards for protecting civilians from being killed," Psaki said. "We will continue to underscore that point to Israel."

Asked whether the U.S. believes Israel has not done enough to prevent civilian casualties, Psaki said: "We believe that certainly there's more that can be done."

Secretary of State John Kerry reiterated U.S. concerns about civilian casualties in a phone call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the State Department said in a statement late Thursday.

Netanyahu described the "imminent threat" posed to Israel by Hamas tunnels from the Gaza Strip, and Kerry reaffirmed strong U.S. support for Israel's right to defend itself against terrorist threats from such tunnels, the statement said. "This should be a precise operation to target tunnels," Kerry said of the Israeli ground incursion into the Gaza Strip.

Kerry also emphasized the need to avoid further escalation of the fighting and to restore the 2012 cease-fire as soon as possible, the department's statement said, noting the importance of Hamas accepting this plan "as soon as possible."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also urged Israel on Thursday "to do far more to stop civilian casualties," calling the killing of four boys on a beach in Gaza City "appalling."

The U.S. has been pushing plans for a cease-fire that Egypt proposed. Kerry also spoke Thursday to top diplomats in Cairo and the Qatari capital Doha to try to negotiate an end to hostilities that entered their eleventh day.

But fierce fighting between Israel and Hamas resumed almost immediately after a five-hour lull in attacks that the United Nations brokered to let Palestinians stock up on food and supplies after days of staying at home for protection. There were intermittent rocket attacks during the lull as well.

Palestinian militants fired more than 50 rockets at Israel, including a barrage at the Tel Aviv area, according to the Israeli military. Israel responded with airstrikes, including the one that killed three youngsters in Gaza City, said a Gaza health ministry spokesman.

The conflict intensified Thursday as thousands of Israeli soldiers backed by tanks invaded the Gaza Strip. That escalated a military operation that was trying to destroy Hamas' weapons arsenal, rocket-firing abilities and tunnels.

The latest wave of violence was spurred by last month's kidnapping and killings of three Israeli teenagers whose bodies were found in the West Bank, followed almost immediately by what authorities believe was a retribution attack on a Palestinian youth who was strangled, beaten and burned to death .

But tensions between Israel and Palestinian authorities have been simmering for years. They threatened to boil over earlier this spring when Israel shelved nearly nine months of peace negotiations that were being personally shepherded by Kerry after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to create a unity government with Hamas.

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Administration announces new gun control measures, targets military surplus imports

April 17, 2013: President Obama puts his arm around former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords before speaking in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington about measures to reduce gun violence.AP

The Obama administration unexpectedly announced two new gun control measures on Thursday, including one that would curb the import of military surplus weapons -- in a move that could anger collectors. 

Vice President Biden announced the new measures Thursday morning. The new rules, announced while Washington was otherwise focused on the crisis in Syria, took the form of executive actions, which President Obama added to the list of 23 steps the White House already determined the president could take on his own. 

The steps come after Congress declined to pass any gun control legislation earlier this year despite an aggressive White House push for action in the wake of the Newton, Conn., shooting massacre. With the political world focused on Mideast tensions and looming fiscal battles, the move signaled Obama's intent to show he hasn't lost sight of the issue. 

The National Rifle Association, though, ripped the administration, saying its proposals would do little to reduce crime. 

"The Obama administration has once again completely missed the mark when it comes to stopping violent crime," the NRA said in a statement. 

One new policy will end a government practice that lets military weapons, sold or donated by the U.S. to allies, be reimported into the U.S. by private entities. The White House said the U.S. has approved 250,000 of those guns to be reimported since 2005; under the new policy, only museums and a few other entities like the government will be eligible to reimport military-grade firearms. 

The Obama administration is also proposing a federal rule to stop those who would be ineligible to pass a background check from skirting the law by registering a gun to a corporation or trust. The new rule would require people associated with those entities, like beneficiaries and trustees, to undergo the same type of fingerprint-based background checks as individuals if they want to register guns. 

But the NRA said that neither measure would reduce crime, since neither the re-importation of firearms nor the corporate gun registration is known to be a source of weapons for criminals. 

"Requiring background checks for corporations and trusts does not keep firearms out of the hands of criminals. Prohibiting the re-importation of firearms into the U.S. that were manufactured 50 or more years ago does not keep firearms out of the hands of criminals. This administration should get serious about prosecuting violent criminals who misuse guns and stop focusing its efforts on law-abiding gun owners," the NRA said in a statement. 

The event in the Roosevelt Room where Biden spoke also marked the ceremonial swearing-in for Todd Jones, whose confirmation to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives after six years of political wrangling to fill that position was another of Obama's post-Newtown priorities. A Senate deal to approve the president's pending nominations after Democrats threatened to change Senate rules cleared the way for Jones' confirmation last month. 

Still out of reach for Obama were the steps that gun control advocates and the administration's own review say could most effectively combat gun violence in the U.S., like an assault weapons ban and fewer exceptions for background checks for individual sales. Only Congress can act on those fronts. 

Although Obama and Biden have said the fight is not over, there is scant evidence that there is more support for gun control legislation than there was in April, when efforts died in the Senate amid staunch opposition from the National Rifle Association and most Republican senators. 

"Sooner or later, we are going to get this right," Obama said that day in the White House Rose Garden, with the families of Newtown victims and former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords -- herself a victim of a gunman -- at his side. "The memories of these children demand it, and so do the American people," the president said at the time. 

In the months following the Senate vote, Biden has claimed that a handful of lawmakers who opposed expanded background checks have told him privately they've changed their minds and want another chance. But Biden and White House officials have not named any of those lawmakers. 

These days, Obama mentions gun control with far less regularity than when it appeared the Senate was poised to take action, although Obama did meet Tuesday with 18 city mayors to discuss ways to contain youth violence. And with immigration and pressing fiscal issues dominating Congress' agenda, the prospects for reviving gun legislation appear negligible. With Jones' confirmation at ATF, the White House has completed or made significant progress on all but one of the 23 executive actions Obama had previously ordered in January, the White House said. Still lingering is an effort to finalize regulations to require insurers to cover mental health at parity with medical benefits, although the White House said that it is committed to making that happen by the end of 2013. 

The new rules for guns registered to corporations will follow the traditional regulatory process, with a 90-day comment period before ATF reviews suggestions and finalizes the rule. Last year, ATF received 39,000 requests to register guns to corporations and trusts. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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