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Good morning, I'm Taylor Wilson and today is Friday, December 8th, 2023. This is the

excerpt. Today we look at what experts say about whether Israel has violated international law in

Gaza. Plus a judge allows an emergency abortion in a Texas case, and election officials are working

to recruit younger and more diverse poll workers.

The Biden administration is amping up pressure on Israel when it comes to civilian deaths in Gaza,

but they're still tiptoeing around whether Israel is violating international law.

I spoke with USA Today, domestic security correspondent Josh Meyer about what the experts are saying.

Josh, thanks for making the time.

Thanks Taylor.

So Josh, how exactly did Vice President Kamala Harris press Israel on civilian deaths in Gaza during this war?

And you know, where does the Biden administration as a whole stand on this issue right now?

So Harris was in the United Arab Emirates for a climate

change summit and met with a bunch of Middle Eastern leaders on the sidelines of

that and then she gave a speech in which she went further than other

Biden administration officials, certainly President Biden,

have in terms of telling Israel to basically

obey the laws of war and armed conflict and stop killing innocent civilians.

Harris, she stopped short of saying that Israel has committed war crimes in its scorched-earth military

campaign to destroy Hamas in retaliation for the October 7th terrorist attacks.

But she came pretty close to it. She said, Israel, quote, must do more to protect civilian life. She said that the United States is quote

...