By Humeyra Pamuk
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Democratic senator questioned on Sunday whether the Biden administration was properly assessing Israel’s compliance with international law, following a Reuters report that some senior U.S. officials did not find that country’s assurances credible.
“This reporting raises serious doubts about the integrity of the Biden administration’s process to assess the Netanyahu administration’s compliance with international law in Gaza,” said Senator Chris Van Hollen said in a statement.
The Reuters report shows that some senior Foreign Ministry officials informed the foreign minister Anthony Blinken that they do not find Israel’s assurances that it is using US-supplied weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law “credible or reliable.”
Blinken must tell Congress by May 8 whether he finds Israel’s promises credible. According to an internal State Department memo, several offices within the agency found Israel’s statements not credible, citing military actions that raised questions about possible violations of international humanitarian law.
Van Hollen said the Reuters report showed that those agencies’ recommendations were “set aside for political convenience.”
“The determination regarding compliance with international law is a matter of fact and law. The facts and the law should not be ignored to achieve a predetermined policy outcome. Our credibility is at stake,” he said.
Van Hollen and some other Democratic lawmakers have put pressure on the president Joe Biden impose conditions on military aid to pressure Jerusalem to limit civilian deaths in the Gaza conflict. So far the board has not done that.
The war, now in its seventh month, was sparked by an attack by Hamas militants that killed about 1,200 people in Israel and took 253 hostages.
Israel has responded with a military operation that has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. The war has displaced most of the 2.3 million people who called the area home and destroyed much of the densely populated enclave.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Mark Porter)
