11/5/2024–|Last updated: 11/5/202406:00 PM (Mecca time)
US Senator Chris Van Hollen commented on his country’s State Department report, which considered that Israel’s military practices in the Gaza Strip did not violate international humanitarian law, saying, “If this behavior is consistent with international standards, may God help us all.”
The Hill newspaper, which is close to Congress, quoted Van Hollen – a senator belonging to the Democratic Party – as saying that President Joe Biden’s administration’s review of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip is completely insufficient.
Van Hollen added that the report showed a large gap in the evaluation of reports issued by international non-governmental organizations that scrutinized Israel’s war against Hamas over a period of 7 months.
He considered that the report set a very low limit for what is permitted in the rules of war and what is required to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid, and stressed that the US administration avoided all difficult questions about actual decision-making.
In the opinion of the US Senator, the findings of the report may motivate votes to restrict the transfer of weapons to Israel.
Van Hollen explained that if the report looked into Israeli behavior more deeply, “we would not only reach a general conclusion” about possible violations of international humanitarian law, but judgments would have to be made on those specific cases.
American report
Yesterday, Friday, the Biden administration said that “Israel’s use of weapons supplied by the United States may have violated international humanitarian law during its military operation in Gaza,” in what they call the strongest criticism yet of Israel.
A State Department report criticized the way Israel used American weapons during its ongoing war on Gaza, but pointed out that there was insufficient evidence of its violation of international law.
The publication of the report comes a day after Biden acknowledged that American bombs had caused the deaths of civilians in Gaza, warning that his country would not supply Israel with specific types of weapons if it launched a large-scale attack on the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
The Foreign Ministry indicated that there were cases in which Israel used American weapons in contravention of its obligations under international law, despite what it called “credible assurances” from Israel that it uses these weapons in accordance with international law.
The report stated that Israel’s heavy reliance on American weapons is likely to be used in operations that are inconsistent with international law.
On the other hand, the American report said that Israel did not fully cooperate with efforts to increase humanitarian aid to Gaza to the maximum extent.
He added that the current assessment indicates that Israel does not prohibit or restrict in any way the provision of American aid in Gaza.
Washington has always rejected accusations by countries and organizations against Israel of deliberately targeting civilians and committing war crimes and genocide against them during the ongoing war on the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli aggression against the besieged Palestinian Strip has so far resulted in the death of about 35,000 and the injury of more than 78,000 others, most of them children and women.
