Top Pentagon and State Department officials warned US President Joe Biden’s administration of potential Israeli war crimes days after the war on Gaza began on October 7, 2023, according to an investigation by the Reuters news agency.
Reuters reported on Friday that after reviewing three sets of email exchanges between senior U.S. administration officials, dated between October 11 and 14, officials sounded the alarm that A rising death toll in Gaza could violate international law and affect U.S. ties with the Arab world.
“The messages also show internal pressure within the Biden administration to shift its message from solidarity with Israel to sympathy for the Palestinians and the need to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza,” revealed the ‘investigation.
In an email sent on October 11 – five days after Hamas’s attack on Israel and the start of the offensive in Gaza – the US State Department’s top public diplomacy official, Bill Russo, told senior officials that the United States was “losing credibility among Arabic-speaking countries.” public” by not addressing the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
That day, the Gaza Health Ministry recorded a death toll of around 1,200 Palestinians.
“The lack of response from the United States on the humanitarian conditions of the Palestinians is not only ineffective and counterproductive, but we are also accused of being complicit in potential war crimes by remaining silent on Israel’s actions against civilians,” Russo wrote.
Russo urged the Biden administration to act quickly and change its public stance from its unwavering support for Israel’s response to the October 7 attack and subsequent war on Gaza.
He then resigned from office in March, citing personal reasons.
Evacuation leaflets
Two days later, on October 13, Israel dropped leaflets in northern Gaza, warning a million residents to leave their homes within 24 hours, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that he would “annihilate Hamas.”
Following a private phone call with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Dana Stroul, then the assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, wrote in an email to top aides that day from Biden that the humanitarian organization was “raising private concern that Israel is on the verge of committing war crimes.”
“Their (ICRC’s) main line is that it is impossible for a million civilians to act so quickly,” Stroul wrote.
The Reuters report adds that a U.S. official in the email chain also said it would be “impossible to carry out such an evacuation without creating a ‘humanitarian catastrophe’.”
Other officials responded to the warning, calling on the administration to convince Israel to slow the movement of civilians into southern Gaza, the report added.
It was the same day that the administration first acknowledged the suffering of the Palestinians during a news conference with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Doha, Qatar.
American weapons
Reuters found that on October 14, Israel’s top defense adviser sent an email to his counterpart at the US State Department requesting that a delivery of rifles be expedited.
Christopher Le Mon, deputy assistant secretary in the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Labor and Human Rights (DRL), which reviews potential arms sales, recommended denying weapons to Israel, citing the “conduct” of Israeli National Police units, including at the Yamam border. patrol unit.
Le Mon said in a letter that there were “numerous reports” of Yamam’s involvement in “gross human rights violations.”
Since the start of the war, the United States has sent Israel a large number of munitions, including thousands of precision-guided missiles and 900 kg bombs, Reuters added, citing several American officials.
Nearly a year into Israel’s relentless war on Gaza, the Health Ministry said Friday that at least 41,802 Palestinians have been killed and 96,844 injured.
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