Biden administration report says Israel likely violated international law in Gaza

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A State Department report found “reasonable” evidence that Israel violated international humanitarian law by using U.S. weapons in Gaza.

The long-awaited report could have demanded the United States stop sending weapons to its ally if it had violated the terms of an arms deal.

But the investigation could not immediately link the violations to U.S. weapons, giving the Biden administration some leeway on whether to restrict future sales.

An earlier AP article, citing an anonymous official, said the report was expected to conclude that Israel had not violated international humanitarian law.

The report was the result of a presidential directive following pressure from Democrats to force the administration to rule on whether U.S.-made weapons sent to Israel were being used legally.

It is unclear whether the United States will continue to investigate whether the violations contained in the report were committed with American weapons.

A separate investigation by Amnesty International found that US munitions were used in two “deadly and unlawful airstrikes against homes populated by civilians in the occupied Gaza Strip” in October.

“The fact that U.S.-made munitions are being used by the Israeli military in illegal attacks with deadly consequences for civilians should be an urgent wake-up call to the Biden administration. Weapons made in the United States have facilitated the massacres of extended families,” said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International.

Israel insists it respects international humanitarian law and accuses Hamas of being responsible for many civilian casualties due to its operations near civilians. He claims to be waging an existential battle against Hamas.

Mr. Biden said in December that “indiscriminate bombing” was costing Israel international support, but it is the first time the U.S. government has directly linked Israel to war crimes.

Senator Chris Van Hollen, who led the investigation in support of the investigation, said The independent earlier this week: “This report will be a test of the Biden administration’s credibility on whether or not it is willing to examine all the facts and apply the law to the war in Gaza. »

In recent days, President Joe Biden explicitly threatened for the first time to suspend arms deliveries to Israel if Israel launched a major ground operation in the border town of Rafah.

Mr. Biden made the statement in an interview with CNN during a visit to Wisconsin on Wednesday, telling anchor Erin Burnett that he would not stop the flow of defensive weapons like the interceptors used for the anti- Israeli Iron Dome missile, even if it cut him. he admitted to suspending the flow of munitions, including the shipment of 2,000-pound bombs.

“We will continue to ensure that Israel is secure with respect to Iron Dome and its ability to respond to recent attacks from the Middle East,” he said. “But that’s simply not true. We’re not going to – we’re not going to provide the weapons and the artillery shells.”

Mr. Biden also said he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel “is not going to get our support, if they actually go to these population centers.”

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza because of these bombs and other ways they attack population centers. »

The independent has previously reported on claims by former State Department and Pentagon officials that the administration’s investigations into possible war crimes by Israel were being undermined by Mr. Biden’s insistence on providing billions of dollars in military support to its close ally.

The former officials said the president’s deep, decades-long personal ties to Israel make U.S. laws and regulations regarding U.S. arms sales essentially ineffective.

“There is no incentive to investigate whether the president and the White House themselves have announced that the aid is unconditional,” said Brian Finucane, who worked for a decade in the State Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, advising on arms transfers and the laws of America. war.

“That means they don’t want to hear uncomfortable legal conclusions,” he said. The independent last month.

Charles Blaha, former director of the State Department’s Office of Security and Human Rights, which regulates arms transfers, said investigations into humanitarian law violations in the Gaza conflict — if they take place – are probably not taken seriously.

“I feel like people are being patted on the head and saying, ‘This is all very interesting.’ But I think it’s the president who decides here,” he said in April.

The State Department has been working on the report for months. It was supposed to be delivered on Wednesday but was delayed.