Liam Conner
Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered to Congress on Friday a highly anticipated report on Israeli military operations in Gaza, accusing its forces of potentially violating international humanitarian law, but without formally concluding that they had already done so, in accordance with the main conclusions of the document.
The report states that while there are allegations that Israel violated international human rights during the period covered by the report, from January 1, 2023, to the end of April this year, the US does not have “complete information” about whether US weapons USA were used. in these actions.
“However, given Israel’s significant dependence on U.S.-made defense items, it is reasonable to assess that defense items… have been used by Israeli security forces since October 7 in cases inconsistent with their [international humanitarian law] obligations or best practices established to mitigate civil harm,” the report states.
While concluding that Israel “did not fully cooperate” with the US government in the first months after October 7 to maximize the flow of humanitarian aid, the report notes a “substantial increase” in its efforts more recently.
And while the overall level of aid reaching Palestinian civilians remains “insufficient,” the report says, “we do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance. ” within the scope of applicable US law.
The 50-page declassified report is a compendium of opinions from diplomatic offices and officials across the State Department and includes contributions from the Pentagon and the White House. The unprecedented assessment was ordered by President Biden in February.
The memo, known as NSM-20, required written commitments within 180 days from the more than 100 countries currently receiving US military aid that the weapons are being used in accordance with US and international humanitarian law and that the countries would appropriately facilitate the provision of US humanitarian assistance. Those in active conflict – including Israel, Ukraine, Nigeria, Somalia, Iraq, Colombia and Kenya – faced a shorter deadline of 45 days, until March 24, to provide their guarantees.
The State Department then set a self-imposed deadline of May 8 to deliver a mandatory review of those assurances to Congress, but the timing of the report slipped as officials finalized their findings.
“This is the first time the department has conducted such an exercise. And so we are taking all deliberate care to make sure everything is absolutely correct,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at a news conference in May 8th.
The report comes at a critical moment in Israel’s seven-month long military campaign in Gaza. In a landmark policy shift, President Biden he said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday, that the US suspended a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel to prevent them from being used in a major operation in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza, acknowledging for the first time that “civilians were killed as consequence of these bombs.”
The White House announcement released Tuesday night specifically stipulated that a shipment of 3,500 bombs, including so-called 500- and 2,000-pound dumb bombs, had been halted the previous week due to concerns about “end use” and ” impact they could have.” we have in dense urban environments.” The paper statement also stipulated that the State Department was reviewing other deliveries, including JDAM kits, which help turn dumb bombs into precision munitions. More than 1 million Palestinians are estimated to be sheltered in Rafah.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Friday that the president was “fully briefed” on the memo.
Israeli forces have been conducting airstrikes on Rafah for weeks and earlier this week sent tanks and troops to seize parts of the city, including the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. Biden administration officials have described the incursions so far as “limited” while warning against a broader operation that would put a greater number of civilian lives at risk.
In that CNN interview, Biden also indicated that he would ensure that Israel continued to receive defensive weapons like the Iron Dome system, but indicated that he might withhold other offensive weapons and artillery shells if the IDF carried out an attack on what he called “population centers.” in Rafah.
Following Biden’s remarks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said in a statement: “If Israel has to be alone, we will be alone.” Israel’s war cabinet voted unanimously on Thursday night to expand operations in Rafah, according to Israeli media.
Mr. Biden published the NSM-20 in February, following pressure from Democratic lawmakers, including Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen, who called for stricter enforcement mechanisms to ensure that recipients of US military assistance complied with international law. This coincided with President Biden’s request to Congress to approve supplemental emergency security funding for Israel, which ended up signing off on $26 billion in funding last month, in addition to the $3 billion in annual military aid. that Israel receives.
Nearly 35,000 Palestinian civilians, most of them women and children, have been killed since the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, according to local health authorities. Israeli forces took action after more than a thousand Hamas militants stormed Israel’s southern border, killed more than 1,200 Israelis and took more than 240 hostages.
Dozens of Democratic lawmakers have already accused Israel of violating US law under the Foreign Assistance Act and is pressuring the administration to impose sanctions. Several human rights organizations and an independent working group also he said Israel demonstrated a “clear pattern” of violating international law and restricting humanitarian assistance.
The State Department has active investigations into Israel’s conduct under other domestic accountability mechanisms, including the Civilian Injury Incident Response Guidance (CHIRG), which was created in August 2023. Miller, the department spokesman, confirmed in February incidents in Gaza in which civilians may have been harmed by American weapons were under review.
The Department has separate processes for determining whether atrocities, including genocide, were committed in a conflict.
Blinken has also been mulling for months the potential suspension of military aid under a federal measure known as the Leahy Act to an IDF unit determined to have committed serious human rights violations in the West Bank before the October 7 attacks. The department was weighing “new information” about the unit presented by the Israeli government last month, officials said.
