US Contradictory Report on Israeli Arms: Credibility vs. Inconsistency

By Al Mayadeen English

The New York Times reports that the United States concluded that the US weapons used by "Israel" to destroy Gaza were not used in violation of international humanitarian law.

Between “credible and reliable” Israeli assurances that it will use US weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law, thus allowing for the further transfer of American arms to "Israel" amid its war on Gaza, and saying it was “reasonable” to assess that "Israel" did use US-supplied weapons that were “inconsistent” with its international humanitarian law obligations, the US seems lost for words when it comes to "Israel's" use of its arms.

According to the American administration, the Israeli occupation has most likely violated international standards when it came to the protection of civilians in Gaza, the United States Department of State told Congress on Friday, as reported by The New York Times.

While the Israeli occupation is violating international standards, the US argued that there was no justification for withholding military aid.

The State Department report said the Israeli occupation "has the knowledge, experience, and tools to implement best practices for mitigating civilian harm in its military operations." However, "Israel" is still not being held accountable for not doing so.

"The results on the ground, including high levels of civilian casualties, raise substantial questions" as to whether the Israeli occupation forces are making sufficient use of said tools, the report acknowledged.

Still, the report, in one of its many contradictions, said the US had no hard proof of Israeli violations in Gaza.

It underlined difficulties faced by Washington in collecting reliable information from Gaza, especially since the Israeli occupation was yet to share complete information to verify whether weapons it had been given by the US were used in specific incidents involving human rights violations.

Finally, somehow, the report differentiates between the broader potential for the Israeli occupation to have breached international law and drawing conclusions based on specific incidents that could substantiate what has been proven as factual time and time again.

For now, it seems that the Biden administration finds assurances given by "Israel", i.e., mere word of mouth, that it would use US arms consistently with international law, sufficient.

'Israel' killed civilians with US bombs

This comes as President Joe Biden admitted on Wednesday that the Israeli occupation killed civilians in Gaza using bombs supplied by the United States, marking the first instance of such an admission by any US official since the genocidal war on the Strip began last October.

His remarks came during an interview for CNN, where he also commented on the recent Israeli invasion of Rafah.

Earlier this week, the US administration paused a shipment of more than 3,000 heavy bombs, citing concerns that they could be used on Rafah.

"Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers," Biden told CNN's Erin Burnett during the interview.

In 215 days, nearly 35,000 Palestinians have been killed, the majority of whom are women and children, in the ongoing aggression on Gaza.

Red line not yet crossed

Biden earlier declared that an offensive on the city sheltering over 1.4 million people, the majority of whom were forcibly displaced from other regions of Gaza, is considered a "red line" that Israelis mustn't cross.

However, late Monday, occupation forces launched a ground attack on Rafah and advanced toward the Rafah crossing with Egypt before taking control of it.

Additionally, the Israeli forces carried out dozens of air strikes on homes and buildings inside the city, resulting in a number of massacres and dozens of martyrs. Moreover, "Israel" has shut down the last land route providing aid to southern Gaza after it had previously closed the Karem Abu Salem crossing.

During the interview with Erin Burnett, the US president stated that "Israel" has not yet crossed the red line he had earlier set.

"They haven't gotten into the population centers. What they did was right on the border, and it's causing problems with, right now, in terms of with Egypt," he claimed.

Biden warned however that "if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, that deal with that problem.”

He added that, in case of a "wide attack" on the city, Washington would stop delivering "the weapons and artillery shells," and would limit weapons to air defense interceptors and other non-attack components and ammunition.