By Rabia Iclal Turan
WASHINGTON (AA) - A US State Department's long-awaited report to Congress said Friday that it is “reasonable to assess” that Israel used US-made weapons in ways that are inconsistent with international humanitarian law.
"Nevertheless, given Israel's significant reliance on U.S.-made defense articles, it is reasonable to assess that defense articles … have been used by Israeli security forces since October 7 in instances inconsistent with its (international humanitarian law) obligations or with established best practices for mitigating civilian harm," said the report.
The report, however, said the "nature of the conflict in Gaza makes it difficult to assess or reach conclusive findings on individual incidents."
The report is required under a Feb. 8 National Security Memorandum, NSM-20, signed by President Joe Biden. Countries that receive US military assistance are required to give Washington "credible and reliable written assurances" that the arms they receive from the US will be used in compliance with "international human rights law and international humanitarian law."
Israel submitted written assurances to the State Department in late March, but human rights groups said those assurances were not credible and urged the government to suspend arms transfers to Israel.
Some senior State Department officials also reportedly told Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Israel might be violating international law and that Israel’s assurances that it submitted to the State Department regarding the use of US weapons are not “credible or reliable”.
The Biden administration last week paused a planned shipment to Israel of 2,000-pound and 500-pound bombs amid concerns about Israel's potential ground offensive in the southern Gazan city of Rafah, where 1.5 million displaced Palestinians have sought refuge on top of the city's pre-war population of more than 200,000.
"Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers," Biden acknowledged in a CNN interview Wednesday, which said he was referring to 2,000-pound bombs.