‘Bullshit process and result’: US report on Israel’s Gaza conduct met with disappointment
A Palestinian paramedic arrives at the site of an Israeli strike on al-Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip, on 22 April 2024
Umar A Farooq reports in Middle East Eye on 13 May 2024:
The United States is not genuinely concerned about Israel’s war conduct in Gaza after the State Department’s failed to conclude that Israel violated international law using US-supplied weapons, policy experts have said.
The State Department released its report on Friday as a part of President Joe Biden’s National Security Memorandum-20 (NSM-20), which said it was “reasonable to assess” that Israel was using US weapons in Gaza in ways that were “inconsistent” with international humanitarian law.
However, ultimately citing a lack of evidence and on-the-ground presence in Gaza, the administration said it was unable to make a conclusive determination. If the State Department had concluded Israel was violating international law with American weapons, it would have required a suspension of weapons transfers.
The report also concluded that while there have been instances of Israel blocking and restricting aid access to Gaza documented by aid agencies, the State Department does “not currently assess” Israel is restricting “the transport or delivery of US humanitarian assistance” to Gaza.
The report’s conclusions came as a shock to Sarah Yager, the Washington director of Human Rights Watch, who said the report’s lack of information regarding Israel’s military conduct was difficult to believe, given their close security coordination.
“One of the shocking things to me, especially as somebody who has worked with the US military and the Pentagon in the past, is that the NSM says that it was very difficult for the US to get evidence from Israel on its conduct,” Yager said during a news briefing on Monday. “It is absolutely shocking that the United States doesn’t have this information from its closest security partner.”
Since Israel’s war in Gaza began last October, the Biden administration has for months claimed that Israel is complying with international law and that the administration had yet to find an instance in which the country was in violation of that law.