US 'deeply concerned' by deaths in northern Gaza's Beit Lahia

US State Department spokesperson Matt Miller told reporters on Tuesday that the US is "deeply concerned by the loss of civilian life" in Beit Lahia in Gaza after an Israeli air strike on an apartment building killed at least 100 Palestinians. 

"This was a horrifying incident with a horrifying result. I can't speak to the total death toll, but there are reports of two dozen children killed in this incident, no doubt, a number of them are children who have been fleeing the effects of this war for more than a year now," Miller said at the daily press briefing.

"We have reached out to the government of Israel to ask what happened here. We don't yet know the underlying circumstances. We have not gotten a full explanation for them about what happened."

He added that Israel has "decimated Hamas's military capabilities" and that such an achievement comes "at great cost to civilians in Gaza, which is, of course, often the case when civilians are caught in the crossfire in conflict."