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The Biden administration currently has no plans to impose conditions on military aid to Israel, officials told CNN, despite increasing calls. Democratic lawmakers and human rights groups called for the US to stop providing weapons unless Israel does more to protect civilians in Gaza. .
Speaking to Democratic donors in Washington this week, President Joe Biden said he had difficult conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Israel’s war, the way it’s lost. the international support of Israel, and the need for a two-state solution led by the Palestinians. Manager. But he said that even in those discussions, “we will not do anything worse than protecting Israel in the process. There is not one thing.”
Echoing that sentiment, US officials told CNN that the US has no plans to change its position and draw any red lines on the transfer of arms and ammunition to Israel. They said the administration has long expected allies and partners to use US military equipment in accordance with international humanitarian law and pointed to Israel’s practice of deploying military lawyers and groups. The Israel Defense Forces are determining in advance whether an attack will be legal or not.
But instead of independently investigating Israeli attacks that the U.S. considers justified or unjustified, the U.S. relies on Israel to justify the attack after the fact, a U.S. official said. And while Biden said last month that the aid arrangement was a “good idea,” the president believed that a strategy of quietly forcing Israel to change its tactics was more effective than threats. to stop weapons, the official said.
In a move that underscores the US commitment to arming Israel, the State Department issued an emergency notification to lawmakers on Friday evening for the sale of the thousands of tanks in Israel, not the usual 20 days usually given by congressional committees. review this purchase.
The State Department has not given any assurances to lawmakers that the administration will monitor the use of weapons, the congressman told CNN, and some Democratic lawmakers was unhappy with the move.
“It was a mistake for the Biden administration to pass Congress to approve the sale of tank ammo for Israel in the midst of civilian casualties,” said the Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts on Monday at X. US military aid must depend on supporting our values and international law.
The US is placing conditions on the military equipment that is provided to Ukraine and has made it clear to Kyiv that US weapons cannot be used to attack inside Russia. But there are no such red lines in the aid given to Israel. The US has advised Israel not to open another front in the war by launching a major attack on Hezbollah, officials said, but did not threaten to cut off aid if they did.
In addition funding request In Congress, the Biden administration included provisions that would lift many of the existing restrictions on US weapons in Israel. The provisions would waive the current funding to replenish Israel’s stockpile of American weapons, known as the War Reserve Stockpile Allies-Israel, allowing the Pentagon to transfer weapons to Israel in accordance enough or no longer valid or exported to the US itself. stockpiles, and shortened the time given to Congress to review arms sales to Israel.
Asked on Monday about reports that Israel used US-made ballistic missiles in an attack that injured civilians in southern Lebanon earlier this year, a spokesman said The National Security Council John Kirby reports that “any time we give things like white phosphorus to another military, with the full expectation that it will be used in accordance with those legitimate purposes and in accordance with the the laws of armed conflict.”
The US does not consider the death of civilians as a result of a military operation to be in itself a violation of the law of armed conflict, one US official explained, because it is not that is the situation established by international humanitarian law – which says that civilians should not be subjected to direct attacks. Instead, the US is judging the legality of Israel’s actions in relation to its attacks and seeking a military purpose. But officials have pointed out that they are not conducting accurate investigations of each Israeli attack, what weapon was used, and how many civilians died as a result.
That’s partly because it’s “almost impossible” to do so in a high-intensity war zone, two officials said. Israel also buys weapons from many different countries and does not tell the US every time it uses a bomb or missile.
But human rights organizations have shown that this is possible, even if limited to research on the subject. An Amnesty International investigation released last week found that the US Joint Direct Attack Munitions system was used in two Israeli attacks in Gaza in October that claimed 43 lives. general died. The US has provided about 3,000 JDAMS to Israel since October 7, a source familiar with US arms sales to Israel told CNN.
A senior defense official told CNN on Monday that while the Pentagon is not conducting a formal review of the Amnesty report, officials from the Pentagon’s Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response team “will review the report along with other publicly available information related to civilian harm as they carry out their role to advise senior DOD leaders.”
Some lawmakers and rights activists argue that the U.S. appears to be abandoning its responsibility under international law to check how Israel uses U.S. weapons, especially bombs. large “bunker-buster” that leaves a signature with US divisions. able to analyze. The US has given at least 140 such bombs to Israel, according to the usual arms sales report.
“The US can share responsibility for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed by Israel and the weapons provided by the US, as all states have a duty not to knowingly contribute to the international activities of other states,” Amnesty warned in a statement.
The Health Ministry of Hamas-controlled Gaza says more than 17,000 Palestinians have died since Israel declared war on Hamas on October 7, when the organization killed more than 1,200. Israel in the worst terrorist attack in the history of Israel.
The Biden administration is monitoring, to some extent, how many bombs provided by the United States were used by Israel in the war. In closed briefings to lawmakers, the officials said experts estimated that Israel destroyed 22,000 US-supplied Gaza in the first six weeks of the war, according to a source and direct knowledge of the subject.
Democratic lawmakers have stepped up their calls for the US to do more. Last week, more than twenty Senate Democrats announced that they would support an amendment to the additional request of the Biden administration that would require the president to approve it in Congress, within 30 days , countries that receive US military aid as part of that supplement are used. in accordance with international humanitarian law and the law of armed conflict.
“It is important that all help Israel comply with US and international law, prioritize the protection of civilians, ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid for the people in Gaza, and in line with a long-term vision for peace, security, and two.-state diplomatic solution,” said Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts in a statement last week.
Language in the annual appropriations bill for 2024, if passed, would also require the information community to notify Congress if any four Information provided by the United States is used by a third party that ends up in the public domain. The law was written before the 7th of October, but it has received a new meaning because the research has grown on the use by Israel of the American aid in Gaza.
This article has been updated with additional information.