Other officials reaffirmed their support for Israel’s representation.
According to a National Security Memorandum (NSM) issued by President Joe Biden in February, Blinken must report to Congress by May 8 whether he finds credible Israel’s assurances that its use of US weapons does not violate US law or international.
By March 24, at least seven State Department offices had submitted contributions to an initial “options memo” to Blinken. Parts of the memo that had not been previously reported were classified.
Submissions to the memo provide the broadest snapshot yet of divisions within the State Department over whether Israel could be violating international humanitarian law in Gaza.
“Some members of the department were in favor of accepting Israel’s assurances, others were in favor of rejecting them, and some took no position at all,” a US official said.
A joint presentation by four offices: Democracy, Human Rights and Labor; Population, Refugees and Migration; Global criminal justice and international organization affairs – raised “serious concerns about the non-compliance” with international humanitarian law during Israel’s prosecution of the Gaza war.
The four offices’ assessment said Israel’s assurances were “neither credible nor reliable.” It cited eight examples of Israeli military actions that officials said raise “serious questions” about possible violations of international humanitarian law.
These included repeated attacks on protected sites and civilian infrastructure; “disproportionately high levels of civilian harm for military benefit”; taking few steps to investigate violations or hold accountable those responsible for significant civilian harm and “killing aid workers and journalists at an unprecedented rate.”
The assessment by the four offices also cited 11 cases of Israeli military actions that officials said “arbitrarily restricted humanitarian aid,” including the rejection of entire truckloads of aid due to a single “dual-use” item, “artificial” limitations ” to inspections, as well as repeated attacks on humanitarian sites that should not be attacked.
Another memo submission reviewed by Reuters, from the Office of Political and Military Affairs, which deals with US military assistance and arms transfers, warned Blinken that suspending US weapons would limit Israel’s ability to confront potential threats. outside its airspace and would require Washington to recover-evaluate “all current and future sales to other countries in the region.”
Any suspension of U.S. arms sales would provoke “provocations” by Iran and aligned militias, the office said in its filing, illustrating the tug-of-war within the department as it prepares to brief Congress.
The communication did not directly address Israel’s assurances.
Inputs to the memo from the Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism and US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew stated that they assessed Israel’s assurances as credible and reliable, a second US official told Reuters.
The State Department’s legal office, known as the Office of General Counsel, “did not take a substantive position” on the credibility of Israel’s assurances, a source familiar with the matter said.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the agency does not comment on the leaked documents.
“On complex issues, the secretary often listens to a wide range of points of view within the department and takes all of those points of view into consideration,” Miller added.
When asked about the memo, an Israeli official stressed: “Israel is fully committed to its commitments and their implementation, including the assurances given to the US government.”
Biden administration officials have repeatedly emphasized that they have not found that Israel has violated international law.
Blinken has seen all of the office’s assessments of Israel’s promises, the second US official added.
Matthew Miller testified on March 25 that the department received the promises. However, the State Department is not expected to present its full credibility assessment until its May 8 report to Congress.
Further deliberations are underway among department offices ahead of the report’s deadline, the U.S. official added.
USAID also contributed to the memo.
“The killing of nearly 32,000 people, of whom the Government of Israel itself estimates that approximately two-thirds are civilians, may well constitute a violation of the requirement of international humanitarian law,” USAID officials wrote in the filing.
USAID does not comment on leaked documents, a USAID spokesperson said.
The warnings about Israel’s possible violations of international humanitarian law by some senior State Department officials come as Israel vows to launch a military offensive in Rafah, the southernmost area of the Gaza Strip that is home to more than a million people displaced by the was, despite repeated warnings from Washington not to do so.
Israel’s military conduct has come under increasing scrutiny as its forces have killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to health authorities in the enclave, most of them women and children.
The National Security Memorandum was issued in early February after Democratic lawmakers began questioning whether Israel was complying with international law.
The memo did not impose new legal requirements, but called on the State Department to require written assurances from countries receiving U.S.-funded weapons that they are not violating international humanitarian law or blocking U.S. humanitarian assistance.
It also required the administration to submit an annual report to Congress to assess whether countries are respecting international law and not impeding the flow of humanitarian aid.
If Israel’s assurances are questioned, Biden would have the option to “remedy” the situation through actions ranging from seeking new assurances to suspending further US arms transfers, according to the memo.
Biden can suspend or place conditions on US arms transfers at any time.
He has so far resisted calls from human rights groups, left-wing Democrats and Arab-American groups to do so.
But earlier this month he threatened for the first time to place conditions on the transfer of American weapons to Israel if it does not take concrete steps to improve the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.