According to a National Security Memorandum signed by President Joe Biden in February, Blinken must report to Congress by May 8 and say whether he believes Israel’s assurances that the use of American weapons do not violate US or international law are credible.
By March 24, at least seven State Department offices had sent their input on an initial “options note” to Blinken. Parts of the memo, which were not previously disclosed, have been classified.
The revelations now by Reuters provide the most extensive picture yet of divisions within the State Department over uncertainties over whether Israel might be violating international humanitarian law in Gaza.
“Some components in the department were in favor of accepting Israel’s assurances, others were in favor of rejecting them, and others took no position,” a US official said.
A joint submission from four offices, Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, Population, Refugees and Migration, Global Criminal Justice and International Organization Affairs, raised “serious concerns about the non-compliance” with international humanitarian law during Israel’s actions in the war from Gaza.
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The four offices’ assessment says Israel’s assurances are “neither credible nor reliable.” It cited eight examples of Israeli military actions that officials said raised “serious questions” about potential violations of international humanitarian law.
These included repeatedly striking protected targets and civilian infrastructure; “unacceptably high levels of civilian harm for military advantage”; little action to investigate violations of humanitarian law or to prosecute those responsible for significant civilian casualties and the “killing of aid workers and journalists at an unprecedented rate”.
The four-office review also cited 11 cases of Israeli military actions that officials said “arbitrarily restricted humanitarian aid,” including the rejection of entire aid trucks because of a single “dual-use” item, limitations “artificial” inspections, as well as repeated attacks on humanitarian camps that should not be hit.
Another note in the memo seen by Reuters, from the Office of Military and Political Affairs, which handles US military assistance and arms transfers, warned Blinken that suspending US arms shipments would limit Israel’s ability to deal with potential threats outside its airspace.
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Any suspension of US arms sales would invite “provocations” from Iran and allied militias, the office said in its presentation.
The Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism and US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew said they assessed Israel’s assurances as credible and reliable, a second US official told Reuters.
The State Department’s legal office, known as the Office of Legal Counsel, “has not taken a substantive position” on the credibility of Israel’s assurances, a source familiar with the matter said.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the agency does not comment on classified documents.
Biden administration officials have repeatedly said they have found no evidence of Israel’s violation of international law.
USAID also provided a point of view. “The killing of nearly 32,000 people, of whom the Government of Israel estimates that approximately two-thirds are civilians, may amount to a violation of the requirement of international humanitarian law,” USAID officials wrote in the presentation.
The warnings of Israel’s possible violations of international humanitarian law by some senior State Department officials come as Israel vows to launch a military offensive in Rafah, the southernmost city of the Gaza Strip, which is home to over a million people displaced by Israel, despite repeated warnings from Washington not to do so.
Israel’s military behavior has come under increasingly severe scrutiny as its forces have killed 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the enclave’s health authorities, most of them women and children.
Israel’s attack was launched in response to a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed and another 250 taken hostage.
The national security memorandum was issued in early February after Democratic lawmakers began questioning Israel’s compliance with international law. The memorandum did not impose new legal requirements, but asked the State Department to seek written assurances from countries that receive US-funded weapons that they do not violate international humanitarian law or block US humanitarian assistance.
If Israel’s assurances are called into question, Biden would have the option to “remediate” the situation through actions ranging from requiring new assurances to suspending further US arms transfers, according to the memorandum. Biden can suspend or place conditions on US arms transfers at any time.
Earlier this month, he threatened for the first time to put conditions on the transfer of US weapons to Israel unless Israel took concrete steps to improve the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.
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Tags: Officials Concerns Breach International Humanitarian Law Gaza Strip Consequences Israel
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