An American senator questions Washington’s assessment of Israel’s commitment to international law

United States – A Democratic member of the US Senate doubted on Sunday that the administration of US President Joe Biden was following an appropriate method to assess Israel’s extent of compliance with international law.

This comes in the wake of a Reuters report that some senior US officials informed Secretary of State Anthony Blinken that they had not obtained “credible or documented” assurances from Israel that it was using American weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law.

Senator Chris Van Hollen said in a statement: “There are serious doubts surrounding this report regarding the integrity of the process within the Biden administration to review the (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s government’s compliance with international law in Gaza.”

Blinken must submit a report to Congress by May 8 specifying whether he considers Israeli guarantees credible.

According to an internal State Department memo, assessments from a number of offices within the department concluded that Israeli assertions were “not credible and cannot be relied upon,” citing Israeli military actions that officials said raised “serious questions” regarding possible violations of international humanitarian law.

Van Hollen said that the Reuters report concluded that the recommendations of those offices “were ignored for the sake of political convenience.”

Van Hollen and some Democratic members of Congress are pressuring Biden to make military aid to Israel conditional on reducing civilian deaths in the Gaza war, but the administration has not done so so far.

Source: Reuters