Israel ‘committed violations’

A CLASSIFIED report by a US government watchdog has found that Israeli military units committed “many hundreds” of potential violations of US human rights law in the Gaza Strip that would take the State Department “multiple years” to review, according to two US officials

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ISRAELI reservists with their tanks at an Israel Defence Force staging area near the border of Gaza in southern Israel in May, 2024.

(The Washington Post)

The findings by the State Department’s Office of Inspector General mark the first time a US government report has acknowledged the scale of Israeli actions in Gaza that fall under the purview of Leahy Laws, the landmark legislation that bars US security assistance to foreign military units credibly accused of gross human rights abuses.

US officials, who discussed details of the report on the condition of anonymity because the contents were classified, said the watchdog findings raised doubts about the prospects for accountability for Israel’s actions given the large backlog of incidents and the nature of the review process, which is deferential to the Israel Defense Forces.

“What worries me is that accountability will be forgotten now that the noise of the conflict is dying down,” said Charles Blaha, a former State Department official in charge of the office that implements the Leahy Laws, who was told about the report.

The report was completed just days before Israel and Hamas entered into a ceasefire agreement that saw the release of the remaining living Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces and the resumption of some humanitarian aid into war-ravaged Gaza.

Although the ceasefire technically remains in effect, Tuesday marked the deadliest day since the accord was struck, with Israeli airstrikes killing at least 104 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, after Israel accused militants of killing an Israeli soldier.