Some senior U.S. officials have advised Secretary of State Antony Blinken that they do not find \u201ccredible or reliable\u201d Israel\u2019s assurances that it is using U.S.-supplied weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law, according to an internal State Department memo reviewed by Reuters.
\nOther officials upheld support for Israel\u2019s representation.
\nUnder a National Security Memorandum (NSM) issued by President Joe Biden in February, Blinken must report to Congress by May 8 whether he finds credible Israel\u2019s assurances that its use of U.S. weapons does not violate U.S. or international law.
\nBy March 24, at least seven State Department bureaus had sent in their contributions to an initial \u201coptions memo\u201d to Blinken. Parts of the memo, which has not been previously reported, were classified.
\nThe submissions to the memo provide the most extensive picture to date of the divisions inside the State Department over whether Israel might be violating international humanitarian law in Gaza.
\n\u201cSome components in the department favored accepting Israel\u2019s assurances, some favored rejecting them and some took no position,\u201d a U.S. official said.
\nA joint submission from four bureaus \u2013 Democracy Human Rights & Labor; Population, Refugees and Migration; Global Criminal Justice and International Organization Affairs \u2013 raised \u201cserious concern over non-compliance\u201d with international humanitarian law during Israel\u2019s prosecution of the Gaza war.
\nThe assessment from the four bureaus said Israel\u2019s assurances were \u201cneither credible nor reliable.\u201d It cited eight examples of Israeli military actions that the officials said raise \u201cserious questions\u201d about potential violations of international humanitarian law.
\nThese included repeatedly striking protected sites and civilian infrastructure; \u201cunconscionably high levels of civilian harm to military advantage\u201d; taking little action to investigate violations or to hold to account those responsible for significant civilian harm and \u201ckilling humanitarian workers and journalists at an unprecedented rate.\u201d
\nThe assessment from the four bureaus also cited 11 instances of Israeli military actions the officials said \u201carbitrarily restrict humanitarian aid,\u201d including rejecting entire trucks of aid due to a single \u201cdual-use\u201d item, \u201cartificial\u201d limitations on inspections as well as repeated attacks on humanitarian sites that should not be hit.
\nAnother submission to the memo reviewed by Reuters, from the bureau of Political and Military Affairs, which deals with U.S. military assistance and arms transfers, warned Blinken that suspending U.S. weapons would limit Israel\u2019s ability to meet potential threats outside its airspace and require Washington to re-evaluate \u201call ongoing and future sales to other countries in the region.\u201d
\nAny suspension of U.S. arms sales would invite \u201cprovocations\u201d by Iran and aligned militias, the bureau said in its submission, illustrating the push-and-pull inside the department as it prepares to report to Congress.
\nThe submission did not directly address Israel\u2019s assurances.
\nInputs to the memo from the Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism and U.S. ambassador to Israel Jack Lew said they assessed Israel\u2019s assurances as credible and reliable, a second U.S. official told Reuters.
\nThe State Department\u2019s legal bureau, known as the Office of the Legal Adviser, \u201cdid not take a substantive position\u201d on the credibility of Israel\u2019s assurances, a source familiar with the matter said.
\nState Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the agency doesn\u2019t comment on leaked documents.
\n\u201cOn complex issues, the Secretary often hears a diverse range of views from within the Department, and he takes all of those views into consideration,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n
When asked about the memo, an Israeli official said: \u201cIsrael is fully committed to its commitments and their implementation, among them the assurances given to the U.S. government.\u201d
\nThe White House did not respond to a request for comment.
\nBiden administration officials repeatedly have said they have not found Israel in violation of international law.
\nBlinken has seen all of the bureau assessments about Israel\u2019s pledges, the second U.S. official said.
\nMatthew Miller on March 25 said the department received the pledges. However, the State Department is not expected to render its complete assessment of credibility until the May 8 report to Congress.
\nFurther deliberations between the department\u2019s bureaus are underway ahead of the report\u2019s deadline, the U.S. official said.
\nUSAID also provided input to the memo. \u201cThe killing of nearly 32,000 people, of which the GOI (Government of Israel) itself assesses roughly two-thirds are civilian, may well amount to a violation of the international humanitarian law requirement,\u201d USAID officials wrote in the submission.
\nUSAID does not comment on leaked documents, a USAID spokesperson said.
\nThe warnings about Israel\u2019s possible breaches of international humanitarian law made by some senior State Department officials come as Israel is vowing to launch a military offensive into Rafah, the southern-most pocket of the Gaza Strip that is home to over a million people displaced by the war, despite repeated warnings from Washington not to do so.
\nIsrael\u2019s military conduct has come under increasing scrutiny as its forces have killed 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the enclave\u2019s health authorities, most of them women and children.
\nIsrael\u2019s assault was launched in response to the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 250 others taken hostage.
\nThe National Security Memorandum was issued in early February after Democratic lawmakers began questioning whether Israel was abiding by international law.
\nThe memorandum imposed no new legal requirements but asked the State Department to demand written assurances from countries receiving U.S.-funded weapons that they are not violating international humanitarian law or blocking U.S. humanitarian assistance.
\nIt also required the administration to submit an annual report to Congress to assess whether countries are adhering to international law and not impeding the flow of humanitarian aid.
\nIf Israel\u2019s assurances are called into question, Biden would have the option to \u201cremediate\u201d the situation through actions ranging from seeking fresh assurances to suspending further U.S. weapons transfers, according to the memorandum.
\nBiden can suspend or put conditions on U.S. weapons transfers at any time.
\nHe has so far resisted calls from rights groups, left-leaning Democrats and Arab American groups to do so.
\nBut earlier this month he threatened for the first time to\u00a0put conditions on the transfer of U.S. weapons\u00a0to Israel, if it does not take concrete steps to improve the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.
\nREUTERSweapons. U.S. officials, Israel’s assurances, international humanitarian law<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some senior U.S. officials do not find Israel’s assurances about using U.S.-supplied weapons in line with international humanitarian law credible or reliable. The State Department is divided on this issue, with some expressing concerns about Israel’s actions in Gaza. The department must report to Congress by May 8 on the credibility of Israel’s assurances. Israel’s military conduct in Gaza has raised questions about potential violations of international humanitarian law. Biden has the option to suspend or put conditions on U.S. weapons transfers to Israel if needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1521,122,6356,969,3503,5692,1943,7667,1863,5286,383,1234,492,3397,4453,5292,279,1776,2577,5732,6196,1381,4893,1810,4117,2515,4081,145,895,4171,415,298,210,5138,115,1235,399,2575,6403,2554,187,8148,4604,146,299,8147,1350,2796,756,3755,582,4484,5679,7776,821,3504,1874,5722,4593,462,864,4843,1670,5279,837,8146,531,2487,4620,2871,1812,6106,5321,827,6386,7967,1358,4544,114,965,2801,380,173,170,483,293,3519,5322,457,165,1100,18],"class_list":["post-9918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","tag-1521","tag-aid","tag-airspace","tag-antisemitism","tag-arms","tag-arms-sales","tag-assault","tag-assessment","tag-assessments","tag-assistance","tag-attack","tag-attacks","tag-biden","tag-biden-administration","tag-blinken","tag-children","tag-comment","tag-compliance","tag-concerns","tag-conditions","tag-congress","tag-deadline","tag-demand","tag-democracy","tag-democrats","tag-february","tag-future","tag-gaza","tag-gaza-strip","tag-gaza-war","tag-government","tag-hamas","tag-health","tag-hostage","tag-human-rights","tag-humanitarian","tag-humanitarian-aid","tag-humanitarian-assistance","tag-infrastructure","tag-inspections","tag-international","tag-international-humanitarian-law","tag-international-law","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-israels-assurances","tag-israeli-military","tag-issues","tag-joe-biden","tag-journalists","tag-justice","tag-labor","tag-law","tag-march","tag-migration","tag-military","tag-national-security","tag-non-compliance","tag-office","tag-palestinians","tag-population","tag-president","tag-president-joe-biden","tag-questioning","tag-rafah","tag-raids","tag-refugees","tag-render","tag-report","tag-request","tag-rights","tag-sales","tag-secretary-of-state-antony-blinken","tag-security","tag-situation","tag-state","tag-support","tag-suspension","tag-top-news","tag-trucks","tag-u-s-officials","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-violation","tag-violations","tag-war","tag-washington","tag-weapons-transfers","tag-white","tag-white-house","tag-women","tag-world"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n