US report on Israel arms use 'self-contradictory': analysts

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A report by the Biden administration on whether Israel’s use of U.S. supplied weapons violated international humanitarian law is “self-contradictory” and full of gaps, that’s according to TWO former State Department officials speaking to Reuters on Friday.

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The 46-page report to Congress was released on Friday and was mandated by a national security memorandum Biden signed in February.

It does say Israel MAY have violated international humanitarian law during its military operation in Gaza.

But due to the chaos of war, it could not verify specific instances where use of U.S.-made weapons might have been involved in alleged breaches.

And since Israel has not "shared complete information" in those cases, the administration says it still finds Israel's assurances it is using U.S. weapons in accordance with international law, credible.

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"I think it is a self-contradictory report in many ways..."

Josh Paul was a Director in the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs.

He resigned in October in protest over the administration’s policy in Gaza.

"It does say that it is reasonable to assume that U.S. weapons have been used to commit violations of international humanitarian law. And yet it does not say that Israel has violated international humanitarian law. It does say that Israel has restricted humanitarian assistance into Gaza. And yet it says that currently Israel is not restricting U.S. funded humanitarian assistance in Gaza, which is an absurd thing to say, given that the IDF is at this moment closing and has closed for several days, the Rafah crossing point, which is the main entry point for humanitarian assistance."

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"I think that in some ways the administration and the State Department are trying to have their cake and eat it too. They are trying to be seen to be leveling criticism while steering clear of the legal determinations that will bind their hands and, you know, potentially lead to restrictions on arms transfers, in particular."

The report said individual violations do not necessarily disprove Israel’s commitment to international humanitarian law, as long as it takes steps to investigate and hold violators accountable.

The report also listed many credible reports of civilian harm and said Israel didn't at first cooperate with Washington to boost humanitarian assistance to the enclave. But in each instance, it could not point to any clear, definitive breaches of law.

Brian Finucane of the International Crisis Group, was a legal advisor to the State Department on the use of military force. He says the Biden administration could have done much more thorough fact-finding if it wanted to.

"Presumably, if there is an interest, they could acquire some of this non-public information and fill in the gaps."

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"Back in the year, going back to the Bush administration, second Bush administration Secretary Colin Powell made announcement that Sudan had committed genocide in Darfur. And I would just say, in that instance, the U.S. government, unlike here, went out of its way to actually engage in fact-finding. So the State Department dispatched researchers to Chad to interview refugees about the ongoing atrocities in Darfur so that the U.S. government can make informed assessments of the facts and apply the law to that. And we have no indication that took place here. You know, there's no indication that the U.S. government tried to interview people in Egypt or elsewhere in the region, refugees from Gaza."

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The findings in the State Department report risk further souring ties between Israel and the U.S., at a time when the allies are increasingly at odds over Israel's plans to invade Rafah - a decision Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he'll press ahead with.

Israel's military is facing backlash with the soaring death toll and the level of devastation in the Gaza Strip.

While the U.S. - Israel's largest arms supplier - has recently put on hold a shipment of heavy, bunker-busting bombs in a major policy shift.

The Biden administration has said it would review additional arms shipments to Israel, even as it reiterated long-term support for its ally in the Middle East.