In a letter addressed to the State Department last Tuesday, led by Senators “Chris Van Hollen” and “Jack Reed,” and highlighted by the “Washington Post,” the lawmakers warned that “delay in reviewing incidents of killings, torture, and ill-treatment in Gaza undermines U.S. laws prohibiting security assistance to foreign military units credibly implicated in gross violations.” The letter affirmed that “laws and policies become meaningless without effective enforcement mechanisms,” according to the newspaper.
The confidential report prepared by the Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. Department of State stated that “the backlog of cases involving Israeli military units could take years to fully review,” and called on “Rubio” to “expeditiously implement the Inspector General’s recommendations and resolve these cases in a timely manner to ensure compliance with U.S. law.”
The pending cases include the killing of 7 World Central Kitchen workers in April 2024, and the killing of more than 100 Palestinians and injury of 760 others near aid trucks in February 2024, according to health authorities in Gaza. Figures issued by Gaza authorities indicate that about 70,000 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the war in October 2023, following a surprise attack by Hamas that resulted in the killing of about 1,200 people in Israel.
So far, the U.S. Department of State has not declared any Israeli unit ineligible for U.S. assistance under the “Leahy Laws,” which prohibit support for units accused of committing serious violations.
In the context of the criticisms, former U.S. official “Charles Blaha,” who oversaw the implementation of the “Leahy Laws,” stated that the problem “is not a lack of resources, but the absence of American political will to confront Israel,” noting that the current and previous administrations “have faced similar criticism from human rights organizations.”
For his part, Israeli Prime Minister “Benjamin Netanyahu” affirms that the relationship with Washington is based on “shared values and goals,” and recently reiterated: “We may disagree sometimes, but we agree on the overall goals.”
