Blinken, Sanders and Graham offer differing views on the State Department’s latest report on Israel’s possible humanitarian violations in Gaza

Following a new report suggesting that Israel may have violated international humanitarian law during military operations in Gaza, high-profile guests appeared on Sunday morning shows to share their views on the matter.

The 46-page report, released on Friday by the State Department, also concluded that it is impossible to verify whether or not US-supplied weapons were used by Israel in Gaza in actions that may have violated international human rights law. Since the October 7 attacks, which left around 1,200 people dead in Israel, almost 35,000 Palestinians and more than 600 Israeli soldiers were killed in the ongoing war, according to multiple reports.

In an interview with NBC Meet the press, Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted that the US does not apply “double standards”To Israel by holding the country responsible for possible humanitarian crimes. He later told CBS Face the nation that it is “very difficult” to draw any final conclusions about whether or not Israel used US-supplied weapons during its attacks on Gaza.

Meanwhile, in separate interviews with Meet the pressRepublican Senator Lindsey Grahamof South Carolina, compared the consequences of the Israel-Hamas war to those of World War II, while the independent senator from Vermont. Bernie Sanders proclaimed that Israel “should not receive another penny in military aid.”

Here are some key takeaways from their interviews.

On Israel’s responsibility

Blinken insisted that the US treats Israel with the same responsibility as any other country when it comes to humanitarian crimes, noting that the US and Israel currently have “hundreds” of open investigations looking into specific incidents.

“Israel has the means and the will to try to police itself,” said Blinken Meet the press host Kristen Welker. “But our own process, which has been ongoing for many months to look at individual incidents – that will continue as well.”

Blinken later defended Biden’s decision to delay sending bombs to Israel if it attacks Rafah, in southern Gaza.

“If Israel launches this major military operation in Rafah, then there are certain systems that we will not support and provide for that operation,” he said. Face the nation presenter Margaret Brennan. “But right now, the only thing we have delayed and are holding back on are these high payload bombs.”

Echoing the recently released report, Blinken said: “It is reasonable to assess that, in a number of cases, Israel has not acted in a way that is consistent with international humanitarian law.”

He added that the US is in “active conversation” with Israel about whether or not these weapons will be handed over.

“We believe two things,” Blinken said. “First, there needs to be a clear and credible plan to protect civilians, which we have not yet seen. Secondly, we also need to see a plan for what will happen after this conflict in Gaza ends. And we haven’t seen that yet.”

Should the US suspend military aid to Israel?

About Meet the pressSanders called for the US to suspend all military aid to Israel as a means to an end.

“[Israel] it did not simply go to war against Hamas; went to war against the entire Palestinian people and the results were absolutely catastrophic,” Sanders told Welker. “According to humanitarian organizations, we are looking at the likelihood of hundreds of thousands of children facing hunger.”

Graham took a different approach when pressed by Welker about Biden’s decision to delay sending bombs of Israel, calling it “the worst decision in the history of the US-Israel relationship.”

“Give Israel the bombs it needs to end the war it cannot lose and work with them to minimize casualties,” Graham said. “When you tell the world that arms deliveries are going to be restricted to the Jewish state, which is fighting a war for its survival, that emboldens Iran, that emboldens Hamas.”

Biden’s approach to war versus Trump’s

Welker asked Sanders about recent statements he made calling the Israel-Hamas war “Biden’s Vietnam,” criticizing the president for supplying weapons to Israel.

“I think there are a lot of people in the Democratic base who are concerned about your support for Israel in this war,” Sanders said, without directly answering the question. He then defended Biden’s choice to potentially withhold more aid: “I certainly support the president saying it’s absurd to provide Israel with two-thousand-pound bombs that could destroy an entire city block in the middle of Rafah, which is an incredibly densely populated area. .”

Later Meet the pressGraham told Welker that former President Donald Trump will be a stronger ally of Israel than Biden.

“President Trump is ready to win,” Graham said. “He said last night when it comes to Israel, ‘I will protect them.’ ‘I will give them what they need.’”

On May 9, Trump spoke about Biden’s decision to suspend military aid to Israel in an interview with the North Carolina newspaper. Spectrum 1 News.

“There was no president [that] has already done something similar to what I did for Israel,” he said, adding later: “I wouldn’t do what Biden did. He simply abandoned Israel. I’ve never seen anything like it.”