Israel’s use of American weapons in Gaza likely breached international law – USA
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The United States said in a report that it was “reasonable to assess” that Israel has used weapons in ways inconsistent with international humanitarian law during the seven-month war.
But the long-awaited State Department report said it could not reach “conclusive findings” and stopped short of blocking weapons shipments.
Relations between the two allies slumped earlier in the week after US President Joe Biden said he would halt some arms deliveries if Israel went ahead with a full-scale assault on Rafah threatened by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
The Biden White House had issued a national security memorandum, NSM-20, in February requiring Israel and other countries receiving military aid to provide written assurances that all US-supplied weapons were used in a manner consistent with international law.
The US would then make a decision about future military aid based on those written assurances. Friday’s report is a byproduct of that memorandum.
“It is reasonable to assess that defense articles covered under NSM-20 have been used by Israeli security forces since October 7 in instances inconsistent with its IHL [international humanitarian law] obligations or with established best practices for mitigating civilian harm,” the report said.
The report nevertheless adds that the Biden administration believes Israel is taking “appropriate steps” to address such concerns.
Nearly 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, many of them women and children, and the head of the United Nations World Food Programme has declared a “full-blown famine” in the northern part of the narrow enclave.
Although the report does not find Israel in violation of either of the terms of the memorandum, it is sharply critical of the toll of Israel’s military campaign. The findings of the report mark another stark moment in US-Israeli relations in the same week President Joe Biden threatened to restrict weapons transfers if Israel goes ahead with a major offensive in Rafah.
Still, the ultimate finding that Israel’s assurances made under the national security memorandum are “credible and reliable” has already raised scrutiny among some lawmakers and incredulity among human rights and humanitarian organizations.
The report did not mandate any actions be taken by the Israeli government, and it does not trigger any policy changes. The administration has largely avoided restricting military assistance to Israel, but in a significant shift ahead of the release of the report, Biden declared publicly in an interview with CNN this week that if Israel proceeds with a major offensive in the Gazan city, he would restrict the transfer of certain offensive weapons to Israel.
