A report from President Joe Biden’s administration concluded that Israeli forces likely used US-supplied weapons in a way “inconsistent” with international law, but failed to identify violations that would end ongoing military aid.
In the report, released on Friday after a delay, the US State Department indicated that Israel did not provide adequate information to verify whether US weapons were used in possible violations of international law during the war in Gaza.
The Biden White House issued a national security memorandum, NSM-20, in February, requiring Israel and other countries receiving military aid to provide written assurances that all weapons supplied by the US were used in a manner consistent with international law. .
The US would then make a decision on future military aid based on these written assurances. Friday’s report is a byproduct of that memo.
“It is reasonable to assess that defense articles covered by NSM-20 have been used by Israeli security forces since 7 October in cases inconsistent with their IHL. [international humanitarian law] obligations or with established best practices to mitigate civilian harm,” the report stated.
However, the report adds that the Biden administration believes Israel is taking “appropriate steps” to address such concerns.
Political reaction
The US has been a consistent ally of Israel throughout its seven-month military campaign in Gaza, which began on October 7.
That war, however, sparked international protests as humanitarian concerns grew.
Nearly 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, many of them women and children, and the head of the United Nations World Food Program has declared “total famine” in the northern part of the narrow enclave.
Still, Israel’s siege of Gaza continues, with access to food, water and electricity severely limited. UN experts have repeatedly warned about the “risk of genocide” in the territory.
As a result, the Biden administration has faced pressure, especially from the progressive flank of the Democratic Party, to address humanitarian concerns by imposing conditions on military aid to Israel.
Following the report’s release Friday, progressive lawmakers expressed disappointment with its findings.
Senator Chris Van Hollen, for example, stated that he “fails to do the hard work of doing an assessment and avoids the ultimate questions that the report was designed to address.”
Meanwhile, Republicans criticized the report for undermining Israel in its campaign against the Palestinian group Hamas.
Senator Jim Risch, for example, called the document “politically damaging” and said it would cause long-term harm to US allies beyond Israel.
“NSM-20 directly targets Israel in the near term, but additional highly politicized reporting requirements will ultimately target other American allies and partners around the world, further impeding the delivery of security assistance and undermining our ability to deter China and Russia,” he wrote in a declaration.
Impediments to reporting
Friday’s report acknowledges limits to the US State Department’s conclusions, noting that the information provided by Israel was not comprehensive.
“While we have obtained information about Israel’s procedures and rules, we do not have complete information about how these processes are implemented,” the report says.
He also stated that war itself creates barriers to understanding what is happening on the ground.
“It is difficult to assess or reach conclusive conclusions about individual incidents” in Gaza, the report states, citing a lack of U.S. government personnel on the ground.
It also echoed Israeli accusations that Hamas could be manipulating civilian victims for its own gains.
Gaza, the report states, represents “as difficult a battlespace as any military has faced in modern warfare.”
Tracking the flow of help
The report also sought to assess whether Israel was impeding the flow of aid to Gaza, another possible violation of international humanitarian law as well as US law.
It found “numerous cases during the period of Israeli actions that delayed or had a negative effect on the delivery of aid to Gaza.”
However, the report concluded that it was unable to assess that the “Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transportation or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance within the meaning of section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act.”
Humanitarian groups, however, have reported for months that Israel is systematically blocking large amounts of aid from entering the Gaza Strip.
Overall, the report states that US intelligence agencies “have no direct indication that Israel has intentionally targeted civilians,” but assessed that “Israel could do more to prevent harm to civilians.”
Additionally, the State Department has committed to continuing to monitor the situation in Gaza, particularly with regard to aid delivery.
“This is an ongoing assessment and we will continue to monitor and respond to any challenges to the delivery of aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza in the future.”
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
