The Biden administration has verified that
Israel is using U.S.-supplied weaponry in line with international law
and is not blocking humanitarian supplies from entering the Gaza Strip,
the State Department confirmed on Monday.
“We have had ongoing assessments about
their [Israel’s] compliance with international humanitarian law,”
spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters at a briefing. “We have not
found them to be in violation of international humanitarian law, either
when it comes to the conduct of the war or when it comes to the
provision of humanitarian assistance.”
Miller also said Washington received
written assurances from a “credible high-level official” in Jerusalem
that the Israel Defense Forces is acting in compliance with a Feb. 8 memorandum issued by Biden.
Titled “National Security Memorandum on
Safeguards and Accountability With Respect to Transferred Defense
Articles and Defense Services,” the directive requires that countries
receiving military aid from the U.S. declare that they respect
international law.
While it doesn’t single out Israel, the
memorandum came about after some Democratic senators pressured the
administration over the military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.
On the day he issued the memorandum, Biden appeared to describe the IDF’s response to Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre as “over the top,” adding that he was seeking a “sustained pause” in the war against the terrorist group.
According to the memo, Israel, as a
country engaged in “active armed conflict,” had 45 days to comply. Other
countries were given 180 days. The State Department has until May 8 to
provide Congress with a report on Jerusalem’s compliance with the
memorandum.
“I should be clear that these assurances
are prospective. But of course, our view on them is informed by our
ongoing assessments of Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza,” Miller said
on Monday while urging human rights NGOs to submit any “credible
allegations about potential violations of international humanitarian
law” to the U.S. government.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry told JNS that the statements out of Washington confirmed “what we are saying all the time.”
Some two months ago, the Biden
administration also pressed Israel to provide answers regarding
incidents in which, it claimed, IDF soldiers operating in Judea and
Samaria may have violated the “Leahy Law,” a set of amendments that restrict military aid over human rights concerns.
The Leahy Law states that
Pentagon-appropriated funds “may not be used for any training,
equipment, or other assistance for a foreign security force unit if the
Secretary of Defense has credible information that such unit has
committed a gross violation of human rights.”
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