Biden Administration Raises Concerns About Israeli Deployment of American Weapons, but Fails To Identify Specific Cases of Misuse
The administration’s assessment, compelled by Democrats in Congress, comes after seven months of airstrikes and ground fighting in Gaza following Hamas’s terrorist attack.
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration said Friday that Israel’s use of American-supplied weapons in Gaza likely violated international humanitarian law but wartime conditions prevented American officials from determining that for certain in specific airstrikes.
The administration’s finding of “reasonable” evidence to conclude that its ally had breached international law in its conduct of the war in Gaza, released in a summary of a report being delivered to Congress on Friday, represents the strongest such statement from Biden administration officials.
Its caveat that it was unable immediately to link specific American weapons to individual strikes by Israeli forces in Gaza, though, could give the administration leeway in any future decision on whether to restrict American provisions of offensive weapons to Israel.
The administration’s findings, a first-of-its-kind assessment that was compelled by President Biden’s fellow Democrats in Congress, comes after seven months of airstrikes and ground fighting in Gaza following Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel.
Mr. Biden has tried to walk an ever-finer line in his support of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s war against Hamas. He has faced criticism at home and abroad over the Palestinian Arab death toll.
Tensions have been heightened further in recent weeks by Mr. Netanyahu’s pledge to expand the Israeli military’s offensive at the crowded southern city of Rafah, despite Mr. Biden’s adamant opposition.
Mr. Biden is in the closing months of a tough reelection campaign against President Trump. He faces demands from many Democrats that he cut the flow of offensive weapons to Israel and denunciation from Republicans who accuse him of wavering on support for Israel at its time of need.
The Democratic administration took one of the first steps toward conditioning military aid to Israel in recent days when it paused a shipment of 3,500 bombs out of concern over Israel’s threatened offensive on Rafah, a southern city crowded with more than a million Palestinians, a senior administration official said.
