Maybe there’s a reason the White House has been keeping John Kerry from Fox News.

Just moments after a testy exchange with “Fox News Sunday’s” Chris Wallace over what the Secretary of State perceived as repeated interruptions, Wallace played a clip captured while Kerry waited to appear on the Sunday news program.

Seemingly oblivious to the fact that the State Department camera in front of him and mic pinned on his lapel were live, America’s top diplomat harshly criticized the on-going Israeli operation in Gaza following news of Israeli army casualties and Palestinian civilian deaths.

“It’s a helluva pinpoint operation,” he told a top aide sarcastically over his cellphone. “It’s a helluva pinpoint operation. We’ve got to get over there. Thank you, John. I think John, we ought to go tonight. I think it’s crazy to be sitting around.”

“Secretary Kerry, when you said it’s a helluva pinpoint operation, are you upset the Israelis are going too far?” Wallace asked.

The diplomat, who appeared to hang his head in disgust the moment Wallace said he would play the tape, composed himself in time for a diplomatic answer.

“I think it’s very, very difficult in these situations, obviously very difficult, Chris,” he said, saying Israel has a “right to go in and take out [Hamas] tunnels” and that the administration “supports Israel’s right to defend itself against rockets that are continuing to come in.”

“So yeah, it’s tough, it’s tough to have this kind of operation,” he continued. “And I reacted, obviously, in a way that anybody does with respect to, you know, young children and civilians. But war is tough.”

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