US says Israel’s use of American weapons in Gaza may have violated international law
- However, the US State Department report stops short of saying military aid should be cut off, citing lack of evidence due to the chaos of war
- Israel’s military conduct has come under increasing scrutiny with the soaring civilian death toll and the level of devastation in the Gaza Strip
The Biden administration on Friday said Israel’s use of US-supplied weapons may have violated international humanitarian law during its military operation in Gaza, a major step up in criticism of its key ally.
But the administration also said that due to the chaos of the war in Gaza it could not verify specific instances where use of those weapons might have violated international law, falling short of making a definitive assessment on the issue.
Because of that, the administration ruled that it still found credible Israel’s assurances that it will use US weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law.
The seemingly contradictory assessment came in a US State Department report to Congress, required under a new National Security Memorandum (NSM) that US President Joe Biden issued in early February.
“Given Israel’s significant reliance on US-made defence articles, it is reasonable to assess that defence articles covered under NSM-20 have been used by Israeli security forces since October 7 in instances inconsistent with its IHL obligations or with established best practices for mitigating civilian harm,” the State Department said in the report.