Workers uncovered more bodies on Monday from a mass grave at the Nasser medical complex in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. The United Nations human rights chief has called for an investigation into the deaths and destruction of the hospital site. So far 7 mass graves were found in Gaza (Mohamed El Saife)
By Olivia Gazis, Margaret Brennan, Camilla Schick
Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered to Congress on Friday a highly anticipated report on the Israeli military’s operations in Gaza that accused Israeli forces of potentially violating international humanitarian law but did not formally find they had already done so, according to the document’s key findings.
The report states that though there are allegations that Israel violated international humanitarian law during the period covered by the report, Jan. 1, 2023 through late April of this year, the U.S. doesn’t have “complete information” on whether U.S. weapons were used in those actions. Its authors cite the difficulty of determining facts on the ground in an active war zone as well as Hamas’s use of civilian infrastructure for military purposes.
“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,” the report adds.
Though it finds that Israel “did not fully cooperate” with the U.S. government in the initial months after Oct. 7 to maximize the flow of humanitarian aid, the report notes a “substantial increase” in its efforts more recently.
And while the overall level of aid reaching Palestinian civilians remains “insufficient,” the report says, “we do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance” within applicable U.S. law.
The report criticizes the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for potentially falling short of using well-known best practices for reducing civilian casualties.
“While Israel has the knowledge, experience, and tools to implement best practices for mitigating civilian harm in its military operations, the results on the ground, including high levels of civilian casualties, raise substantial questions as to whether the IDF is using them effectively in all cases,” it says.
But the report also reveals that Israel has “opened a number of criminal investigations, which are ongoing, including into allegations related to deaths and treatment of detainees and allegations of violations of international humanitarian law,” while noting no known prosecutions for alleged crimes have been completed.
The IDF’s fact-finding assessment mechanism also “continues to examine hundreds of incidents to consider possible misconduct in the context of ongoing military operations,” the report says.
The report also notes Israel’s extensive efforts to inform Gazan civilians of its “hundreds of tactical pauses,” where to go (via leafleting and text messages) to avoid harm, and its sophisticated system for identifying where civilians are located”, but it also states “the reported rate of civilian harm in the conflict also raises serious questions about the efficacy of Israeli precautionary measures.”
A senior State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive assessment, said the NSM-20 proved to be a useful tool in getting the Israeli government to provide information about specific incidents and in some cases, in improving the ways in which it was facilitating the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
The 46-page, declassified report is a compendium of views from bureaus and diplomatic officials from across the State Department and includes input from the Pentagon and White House.
The memorandum, known as NSM-20, required written commitments within 180 days from the more than 100 countries that currently receive U.S. military aid that the weapons are being used in accordance with U.S. and international humanitarian law and that the countries would duly facilitate the delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance. Those in active conflict — including Israel, Ukraine, Nigeria, Somalia, Iraq, Colombia and Kenya — faced a shorter, 45-day deadline of March 24 to submit their assurances.
The State Department then set a self-imposed deadline of May 8 to deliver a mandated review of those assurances to Congress, but the timing of the report’s delivery slipped briefly as officials finalized its conclusions.
“This is the first time the department has conducted such an exercise. And so we are taking all deliberate care to make sure that we get everything in it absolutely correct,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a press briefing on May 8.
The report found that the assurances provided by the seven countries in active conflict were “credible and reliable so as to allow the provision of defense articles…to continue.”
CBS
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.