Gaza war: Israel's use of US-supplied weapons may have violated international law, says Washington

TheUnited States said on Friday (May 10) that Israel's use of American-supplied weapons may have violated international humanitarian law during its military operation in the Gaza Strip.Thiswas Washington'sstrongestcriticism of Israel since the Israel-Hamas war began in October last year.

However, the Joe Biden administration stopped short of a definitive assessment, saying that due to the chaos of the Israel-Hamas warit could not verify specific instances whereuse of those weapons might have been involvedin alleged breaches.

The State Department report with contradictions

This assessment came in a 46-page unclassified State Department report to Congress required under a new National Security Memorandum (NSM) that President Joe Biden issued in February.

The report included contradictions-It listed numerous credible reports of civilian harm and said Israel did not at first cooperate with Washington to boost humanitarian assistance to the enclave. But in each instance, it said it could not make a definitive assessment of whether any breaches of law had occurred.

"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 report said.

"Israel has not shared complete information to verify whetherUSdefence articles covered under NSM-20 were specifically usedin 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," it added.

'Biden administration ducked all hard questions'

Reacting to the report,Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said the administration had "ducked all the hard questions" and avoided looking closely at whether Israel's conduct should mean military aidis cut off.

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"This report contradicts itself because it concludes that there are reasonable grounds to believe violations to international law have occurred, but at the sametimethat says they're not finding non-compliance," Hollen said during a press conference.

Israel's military conduct in the Gaza Striphas come under increasing scrutiny, and officials at the US State Department havebeen dividedover the issue.