Not a single case has reached the “action” stage of investigations into the reports.
The United States government has received close to 500 reports over the past year stating that Israel used US-supplied weapons for attacks in the Gaza Strip that killed civilians, the Washington Post reported.
However, not a single case has reached the “action” stage of the investigation that should take place under the State Department’s Civilian Harm Incident Response Guidance (CHIRG), according to the paper, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Under the program, announced last year, “officials will investigate reports of civilian harm by partner governments suspected of using U.S. weapons and recommend actions that could include suspension of arms sales.”
The State Department has received hundreds of reports that Israel’s use of U.S. weapons is responsible for excessive civilian casualties in Gaza, officials say. https://t.co/6HhJx2fQcw
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 30, 2024
The cases came from “across the U.S. government, international aid organizations, nonprofits, media reports and other eyewitnesses,” the report said on Wednesday, and included photo evidence of “U.S.-made bomb fragments at sites where scores of children were killed.”
Non-Israeli Sources Questioned
But current and former US officials told the Post that, “while detailed and deliberate on paper,” the process “has become functionally irrelevant with more senior leaders at the State Department broadly dismissive of non-Israeli sources and unwilling to sign off on action plans.”
The israelis are using american MK-84 bombs with SPICE-2000 “missile guidance kits” to annihilate and obliterate civilians in #Gaza and #Beirut pic.twitter.com/NHmfA3Def2
— Sarah Wilkinson (@swilkinsonbc) October 22, 2024
Mike Casey, a State Department official who resigned in July, told the paper that senior officials often dismissed the credibility of Palestinian sources, eyewitness accounts, non-governmental organizations, and even the United Nations.
They “gave the impression that their goal in discussing any alleged abuse by Israel was to figure out how to frame it in a less negative light.”
Casey said there was a sense of “How do we make this okay?” instead of “How do we get to the real truth of what’s going on here?”
Cases Dismissed
According to those familiar with the process, the paper said, “at least one-quarter of cases have been dismissed in the first of three investigative stages, either because they are deemed not credible or because there was no indication of U.S. weapons use.”
One former official is cited as saying that the majority of cases have reached the “verification” stage.
😡The Biden admin has received nearly 500 reports of Israel using US weapons to massacre Palestinians but @StateDept hasn’t moved even one report to the stage of the US imposing consequences for Israel violating Civilian Harm Incident Response Guidance. https://t.co/S5IyF4msW2 pic.twitter.com/76Y3w6MJoE
— Josh Ruebner (@joshruebner) October 30, 2024
This is where the Israeli government is asked “Did you forewarn? Why did you hit this school or safe road or safe zone?” the official said.
The paper quotes John Ramming Chappell, a legal and policy adviser focused on US security assistance and arms sales at the Center for Civilians in Conflict as saying that the government was “ignoring evidence of widespread civilian harm and atrocities to maintain a policy of virtually unconditional weapons transfers to the Netanyahu government.”
“When it comes to the Biden administration’s arms policies, everything looks good on paper but has turned out meaningless in practice when it comes to Israel,” Chappel said.
$17.9 Billion in Military Aid
The paper cites a recent study by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs which concluded that Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of US military aid since World War II.
Israel has received at least $17.9 billion in US military assistance in the past year alone, according to the study.
No Accountability – The Deadly US Weapons of Civilian Destruction
Among the cases submitted to the State Department, according to the report, is the killing earlier this year of six-year-old Hind Rajab and her family in their car, “with pieces of a U.S.-made 120mm tank round purportedly found at the scene,” the report said.
“There were shards of American-made small diameter bombs photographed at a family’s home and at a school sheltering displaced civilians after airstrikes in May killed dozens of women and children. And there was the tail fin of a Boeing-manufactured Joint Direct Attack Munition on the scene of a July airstrike that killed at least 90 Palestinians,” the report added.
Ongoing Genocide
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
Stop the War, Withdraw from Gaza – Hamas Reiterates Conditions for Ceasefire
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 43,163 Palestinians have, to date, been killed, and 101,510 wounded.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
Famine and Displacement
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
‘Severe Food Insecurity’ – WFP Sounds Alarm on Nearing Famine in Gaza
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
