US takes no action in 500 cases where its weapons harmed civilians in Gaza | News about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

According to The Washington Post and Reuters news agency, the United States has identified about 500 reports of civilians being harmed and killed in the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces using U.S.-supplied weapons, but has taken no action on any of them.

The incidents have been collected since Oct. 7, 2023, by the U.S. Department of State’s Civilian Injury Incident Response Guidelines, a formal mechanism for tracking and assessing any reported misuse of U.S.-origin weapons, the Post reported Wednesday.

Among the cases referred to the State Department is the January killing of six-year-old Hind Rajab and her family in a car using pieces of a 120mm U.S. tank cartridge allegedly found in the scene, according to people familiar with the matter.

Shrapnel from small-diameter U.S. bombs was photographed at the family home and at a school that sheltered displaced civilians after May air attacks that killed dozens of women and children.

There was also the tail fin of a Boeing-made joint direct attack munition at the site of the July attack that killed dozens of Palestinians.

State Department officials gathered information about the incidents from public and other sources, including media reports, civil society groups, and contacts with foreign governments.

According to a December internal State Department cable reviewed by Reuters, the mechanism established in August last year, which is to be applied to all countries receiving American weapons, consists of three stages: incident analysis, policy impact assessment and coordinated department actions.

None of the Gaza cases have yet reached the third stage of action, said a former U.S. official familiar with the matter.

Options, a former official told Reuters, could include working with the Israeli government to mitigate the damage, suspending existing arms export permits or halting future permits.

“Very difficult job”

President Joe Biden’s administration said it was reasonable to assess that Israel violated international law during the conflict, but assessing individual incidents was “a very difficult job,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters on Wednesday.

“We are conducting these investigations, we are conducting them thoroughly and aggressively, but we want to get the right answer and it is important that we do not jump to a predetermined outcome and do not omit any part of this work,” Miller said, adding that Washington has consistently expressed concerns about civilian damages done to Israel.

John Ramming Chappell, a legal and policy adviser on U.S. security assistance and arms sales at the Center for Civilians in Conflict, told the Post that U.S. officials are “ignoring evidence of widespread harm and atrocities among civilians to maintain a policy of virtually unconditional arms transfers to (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s government.”

“When it comes to the Biden administration’s arms policy, everything looks good on paper, but in practice it turned out to be meaningless when it comes to Israel,” he added.

Mike Casey, who worked on Gaza issues at the State Department’s Bureau of Palestinian Affairs in Jerusalem, told the Post that senior officials routinely gave the impression that their goal in discussing any alleged abuses by Israel was to find a way to frame it. less negative light.

“There’s this feeling of, ‘How do we get this done?'” Casey, who resigned in July, is quoted as saying. “There is no question: ‘How do we get to the real truth about what’s going on here?'”

He said senior officials often dismissed the credibility of Palestinian sources, witness accounts, non-governmental organizations, official accounts of the Palestinian Authority and even the United Nations.

William D Hartung, co-author of the Watson Institute report and an expert on the U.S. arms industry and military budget at the Quincy Institute, told the newspaper that “it is almost impossible” for Israel not to violate U.S. law “given the level of carnage taking place and the preponderance of American weapons.” “.

Oren Marmorstein, a spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry, declined to discuss with the Post the U.S. investigations or Washington’s efforts to limit civilian harm.

The Israeli military says it is making “significant efforts” to avoid harm to civilians, but cites the presence of Hamas fighters among civilians as justification for carrying out bombings of schools, hospitals, mosques and tent encampments.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says most of the 43,163 people killed since Oct. 7 last year were women and children.