The State Department told Congress on Friday that the Biden administration believes Israel most likely violated international standards by failing to protect civilians in Gaza but has not found specific circumstances that would justify refusal of military aid.
In the administration’s most detailed assessment of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, the State Department said in a written report that Israel “has the knowledge, experience and tools to take good measures.” aimed at minimizing civilian harm in its military operations”.
But they added that “results on the ground, including high levels of civilian casualties, raise significant questions” about whether the Israel Defense Forces fully used those tools. Are not.
Even so, the report — which appeared contradictory in many places — said the United States had no solid evidence of Israeli violations. It noted the difficulty in gathering reliable information from Gaza, Hamas’s tactics of operating in civilian areas, and the fact that “Israel has not shared sufficient information to verify” whether US weapons was used in specific incidents alleged to have involved violations of human rights law.
Report, authority by President Biden, also distinguishes between the general possibility that Israel has violated the law and any conclusions about specific incidents that would justify it. They argued that the assurances Israel gave in March that it would use US weapons in accordance with international law were “credible and credible,” and thus authorized its military aid. America continues to continue.
The conclusions are not related to Mr. Biden’s recent decision delay delivery sending Israel 3,500 bombs and his consideration of other arms shipments. The president said those actions were in response to Israel’s stated plan to invade the city of Rafah in southern Gaza.
The report said its findings were hampered in part by challenges in gathering reliable information from war zones and how Hamas operates in densely populated areas. It also emphasized that Israel has begun pursuing possible accountability for suspected violations of the law, a key factor in the US assessment of whether to provide military aid. support for allies accused of human rights abuses.
The report said Israel has opened criminal investigations into the conduct of its military in Gaza and that the Israel Defense Forces “is reviewing hundreds of cases” that may involve misconduct during the period. war.
The report also did not find that Israel intentionally obstructed humanitarian aid from entering Gaza.
While concluding that both “Israeli action and inaction” have slowed the flow of aid into Gaza, where there are severe shortages of essentials such as food and medicine, “we do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or restricting the transportation or delivery of U.S. humanitarian aid” into the territory.
Such a finding could lead to US legislation banning military aid to countries that block such support.
Brian Finucane, a former State Department lawyer now with the International Crisis Group, said the report “went backwards” to avoid concluding that Israel had broken any laws, a finding that would bring renewed pressure. up to Mr. Biden to limit weapons for this country.
Mr. Finucane, a critic of Israel’s military activities, said that the report was “more informative” than he expected, but that he still found it “understated” and “heavily lawyered up.”
The findings further angered a minority of Democrats in Congress, who have become increasingly critical of Israel’s behavior in Gaza. They claim that Israel has indiscriminately killed civilians with US weapons and deliberately obstructed humanitarian aid provided by the US.
Either violates U.S. law on the transfer of weapons to foreign militaries, as well as international humanitarian law, which is largely based on the Geneva Conventions.
The report did not identify the implications of other criteria for Israel’s actions, “which established best practices to minimize civilian harm,” although it cited the Defense Ministry. instruct on the subject introduced last year, which included a number of measures “not required under the laws of war”.
“If this conduct complies with international standards, then God help us all,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, told reporters after the report was released. “They don’t want to have to take any action to hold the Netanyahu government responsible for what is happening,” he added, referring to Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Critics of Biden’s continued military support for Israel had hoped that he would use the report as a justification for further restricting arms supplies to the country. America supplies Israel $3.8 billion in annual military aidand Congress last month approved an additional $14 billion in emergency funding.
Mr. Biden ordered the report in a national security memorandum called NSM-20. It requires all recipients of U.S. military aid involved in conflicts to provide the United States with written assurances that they will comply with international law and not impede the delivery of humanitarian aid. provided or supported by the United States government.
The report calls on the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense to evaluate “any credible reports or allegations” that US weapons may have been used in violation of international law.
Since the presidential memorandum was issued, an independent task force has been established to respond a long report citing dozens of examples of possible violations of Israeli law. That report found what it called “Israel’s systematic disregard for basic principles of international law,” including “attacks carried out without regard to the extent of the damage.” “foreseeable to civilians” in densely populated areas.
In a statement following the State Department report, the task force called the US document “at best incomplete and at worst intentionally misleading in its defense of actions and conduct potential violation of international humanitarian law and could amount to war crimes.”
“Once again, the Biden Administration looked the truth in the face — and then pulled back the curtain,” said members of the task force, including Josh Paul, a former State Department official who in October said . resigned in protest about America’s military support for Israel.
The State Department report expressed clear sympathy for Israel’s military challenge, and echoed the Biden administration’s previous statements that Israel had the “right to defend itself” after the Hamas attack on Sunday. 7/10. It also noted that military experts call Gaza “the most difficult battle space any army has faced in modern warfare.”
“Because Hamas uses civilian infrastructure for military purposes and civilians as human shields, it is often difficult to determine the reality in an ongoing war zone of this nature and the presence of legitimate military targets throughout Gaza,” the organization said.
Even so, it singled out numerous specific incidents in which the Israeli military had killed civilians or aid workers, later calling it a “particular area of concern.”
Those episodes included the killing of seven people World central kitchen workers in April. The report noted that Israel fired the officers and reprimanded the commanders involved in that attack, which Israel called “a serious mistake” and was considering prosecution.
Other episodes it cited included air strikes on October 31 and November 1 on the crowded Jabaliya refugee camp, which reportedly killed dozens of civilians, including children. It noted Israel’s claim that it had targeted a senior Hamas commander and underground Hamas facilities at the site, and that its ammunition had “led to the collapse of the tunnels as well like the buildings and infrastructure above them.”
And while the report did not find that Israel had intentionally hindered the delivery of humanitarian aid, it did list several examples of how its government had “negatively impacted” the distribution of humanitarian aid. aid coordination. They include “extensive bureaucratic delays” and what it calls the active participation of some senior Israeli officials in protests or attacks on aid convoys.
The report was sent to Congress two days after the deadline set by Mr. Biden’s February memo, arriving late Friday afternoon – a time chosen by administration officials hoping to minimize the impact of the announcement. reported to the public. Earlier that day, White House spokesman John F. Kirby denied the delay had any “nefarious” motive.
