A report published by the State Department on Friday said it was “reasonable to assess” that Israel has been using weapons provided by the U.S. in violation of international humanitarian law.
However, the report said that the U.S. could not reach “conclusive findings.”
U.S. State Department was asked to deliver to Congress under a new National Security Memorandum (NSM) that President Joe Biden issued in early February, whether it finds credible Israel’s assurances that its use of U.S. weapons does not violate U.S. or international law.
“Israel has not shared complete information to verify whether U.S. defense articles covered under NSM-20 were specifically used in actions that have been alleged as violations of IHL or IHRL in Gaza, or in the West Bank and East Jerusalem during the period of the report,” the U.S. State Department said in a report to Congress.
“Nevertheless, given Israel’s significant reliance on U.S.-made defense articles, it is reasonable to assess that defense articles covered under NSM-20 have been used by Israeli security forces since Oct. 7 in instances inconsistent with its IHL obligations or with established best practices for mitigating civilian harm.”
Israel’s military conduct has come under increasing scrutiny as its forces have killed 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children.
U.S. officials at the State Department have been divided over the issue. Reuters reported in late April that officials in at least four bureaus inside the agency have raised serious concerns over Israel’s conduct in Gaza, laying out specific examples of the country might be in breach of the law.
Rights group Amnesty International, in a report also in late April, said U.S.-supplied weapons provided to Israel had been used in ‘serious violations” of international humanitarian and human rights law, detailing specific cases of civilian deaths and injuries and examples of the use of unlawful lethal force.
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