By Suleman Yousaf (Pakistan)

An assessment from the Biden Administration found that Israeli forces likely have used US-supplied weapons in a way which is inconsistent with international law. 

However, the report fell short of identifying the violations that could stop the ongoing military aid. This report was released on 10th May after a delay.

The US State Department highlighted that the delay was due to Israel not providing adequate information to validate whether US weapons were used in any possible violations of international law in Gaza. 

In February, the White House issued a national security memorandum (NSM-20) requiring countries including Israel receiving military aid to provide assurances in written form that all US weapons were used following international law.  

Consequently, the US would decide on military aid based on those assurances. The assessment report is the byproduct of that NSM-20 memorandum. 

The assessment stated that it’s reasonable to evaluate that any defence articles covered under NSM-20 have been utilized by Israeli forces since October 7 in cases in situations inconsistent with international humanitarian law or with the best practices to mitigate civilian harm. 

Nevertheless, the assessment also highlighted that the Biden administration believes Israel is taking adequate measures to address these concerns. 

The US has been an Israeli ally since its military campaign started in Gaza on October 7. And this war has spurred global outcry with the mounting humanitarian concerns. 

Israel’s siege on Gaza carries on and more than 35,000 Palestinians have been brutally killed in Gaza and most of them are women and children. 

The head of the UN World Food Programme has declared a full-blown famine in the northern region of the Gaza Strip. 

Despite all that, Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has intensified with access to water, food and electricity severely deteriorating. UN experts have warned time and time again regarding the risk of genocide within the territory. 

Consequently, the Biden administration is facing pressure specifically from the progressive block within the Democratic Party to respond to the humanitarian concerns and place conditions on military aid to Israel. 

With the release of this report, the progressive lawmakers were disappointed. For example, Senator Chris van Hollen said that the report needs to do more hard work in evaluation and ducks right under the ultimate questions it was designed to find out. 

On the other hand, Republicans criticized the report for undermining Israel in its campaign against Hamas. For example, Senator Jim Risch called this report politically damaging and that it would prove to be harmful to US allies beyond Israel in the long run.

The report, however, does acknowledge its limitations in findings and points out that the information that Israel provided needed to be more comprehensive. 

It also mentioned the difficulty of reaching conclusive findings on individual accounts as war itself creates barriers and this is caused by the lack of US personnel on the ground. 

It also echoed the Israeli accusations that Hamas might have been manipulating civilian casualties for its own benefit. 

In addition, this report highlighted whether Israel was impeding the aid flow entering Gaza which is another potential violation of international humanitarian law and US law. 

Several instances were highlighted during the period of Israeli actions that delayed a negative effect on aid delivery in Gaza. 

Still, the assessment concluded that it couldn’t find that the Israeli government is prohibiting or restricting the US humanitarian assistance delivery under the Foreign Assitance Act Section 620I.

However, humanitarian groups have been reporting for several months that Israel systematically blocks large aid portions from entering the Strip. 

Overall, this assessment concluded that US intelligence agencies don’t have any direct indication of Israel targeting civilians intentionally. However, Israel could do more to avoid any civilian harm.

Furthermore, the State Department pledged that it will continue to monitor this situation, especially regarding aid delivery. 

Suleman is a contributing writer in The Advocate Post, who writes about current and social affairs.