Rights Groups Tell Biden Israeli Claims About US Weapons Use in Gaza 'Not Credible'

As the Biden administration formally reviews the use of U.S. weapons by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip, a pair of human rights groups on Tuesday submitted a joint memorandum detailing Israel's abuse of Palestinians and demanding an end to all arms transfers.

"There are good reasons why U.S. law prohibits arms support for governments that block lifesaving aid or violate international law with U.S. weapons," said Sarah Yager, Washington director at Human Rights Watch (HRW). "Given ongoing hostilities in Gaza, the Israeli government's assurances to the Biden administration that it is meeting U.S. legal requirements are not credible."

HRW and Oxfam's memo comes after Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant last week signed a letter claiming his country has not arbitrarily blocked humanitarian aid and U.S.-supplied arms have been used in line with international law, assurances required under a national security memorandum about weapons support that U.S. President Joe Biden released in February.

The United States provides Israel $3.8 billion in annual military aid and Biden has sought billions more while bypassing Congress to arm Israeli forces. The administration is now reviewing Gallant's letter and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken—who is headed back to the Middle East this week for cease-fire talks—has until March 25 to notify Congress about the credibility of Israeli claims.

"The time has long passed for the Biden administration to end lethal arms sales to Israel, and we call on them to do so now and work to end the death and suffering in Gaza."

According to the memo by Oxfam and HRW, the groups "have observed or documented that the Israeli authorities have carried out indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks in violation of international humanitarian law following the Hamas-led October 7 attacks in Israel, imposed collective punishments on the civilian population, deprived the civilian population of objects indispensable to its survival, and used starvation of civilians as a weapon of war."

"These are all grave violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention and customary international humanitarian law. The vast majority of Gaza's population has also been forced to flee their homes, many as a result of Israeli actions that amount to war crimes," the document continues. "Israeli authorities have also restricted, delayed, and impeded U.S.-origin humanitarian assistance in contravention of U.S. laws and policy."

The memo is based on the groups' firsthand experiences and investigations, backed by information from reliable news outlets. It explains that "given the widespread insecurity in Gaza and the Israeli government's restrictions on the entry of foreign investigators, journalists, and aid workers, we believe that the examples we cite here reflect a broader pattern of conduct than is currently being assessed by the U.S. government."

Examples cited in the section on international law violations include multiple Israeli airstrikes on or near several major healthcare facilities, including a November bombing of a marked ambulance outside al-Shifa Hospital; the use of white phosphorus and "dumb bombs" in densely populated civilian areas; strikes in southern Lebanon that killed one journalist and injured six others; and the destruction of water, sanitation, and hygiene infrastructure recently installed by Oxfam and its partners.

The section on depriving Gazans of necessities for survival begins by quoting Gallant, who declared on October 9 that Israel is "imposing a complete siege," meaning the 2.3 million people of Gaza, whom he called "human animals," get "no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel" as they face Israeli bombs and bullets.

After laying out how the Israeli government has delivered on the defense minister's pledge over the past five months— killing at least 31,819 Palestinians and wounding another 73,934—the memo stresses that "international humanitarian law requires Israel, as the occupying power in Gaza, to ensure that the basic needs of the civilian population are provided for."

The memo concludes with a section about how "the Israeli government has systematically restricted humanitarian aid and entry and exit of commercial goods to Gaza," initially by restricting all imports and then by imposing an "arbitrary and unnecessarily complex inspection process."

"From October 9 to January 31, an average of 95 truckloads of humanitarian aid entered Gaza per day, which is well below the 500 truckloads of goods entering Gaza per day prior to the onset of hostilities," the memo notes. Conditions are particularly dire for "the roughly 300,000 Palestinians who remain in northern Gaza, where the threat of starvation is most acute."

Israel currently faces a South Africa-led case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in late January found that the country is plausibly committing genocide in Gaza and ordered it to "take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance."

In the month after that ICJ ruling, "the amount of humanitarian convoys entering Gaza actually decreased by 30%," the memo highglights. Multiple rights groups, including HRW, have accused Israel of blatantly ignoring the court's order.

Even before the ICJ's preliminary decisions, HRW was pressuring other countries to suspend weapons transfers to Israel, first making the demand in November. Oxfam joined with 15 other international groups to call for an arms embargo in January.

"Oxfam has repeatedly sounded the alarm that Israel's ongoing bombardment and siege, and its actions to prevent access for humanitarian aid, have escalated a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza," Scott Paul, associate director for peace and security at Oxfam America, said Tuesday. "We have laid out clearly for the Biden administration why any assurances from Israel that they have not delayed, restricted, and impeded aid into Gaza cannot be relied upon."

"Despite this, the United States has continued to provide Israel with deadly weapons," Paul added. "The time has long passed for the Biden administration to end lethal arms sales to Israel, and we call on them to do so now and work to end the death and suffering in Gaza."