A report by the Biden administration said Israel's use of U.S.-supplied weapons in Gaza may have violated international humanitarian laws in the White House's strongest criticism of Israel in the seven-month-old war, according to reports.
But the administration noted that it couldn't make a definitive assessment connecting specific weapons deployed by Israel in its fight against Hamas because of the chaos of war, Reuters reported.
The findings come in a 46-page unclassified State Department report released to Congress on Friday under a National Security Memorandum signed by President Joe Biden in February.
"Given Israel's significant reliance on U.S.-made defense articles, it is reasonable to assess that defense articles covered under NSM-20 have been used by Israeli security forces since October 7 in instances inconsistent with its IHL obligations or with established best practices for mitigating civilian harm," said the State Department the report cited by Reuters.
"Israel has not shared complete information to verify whether U.S. defense articles covered under NSM-20 were specifically used in actions that have been alleged as violations of IHL or IHRL in Gaza, or in the West Bank and East Jerusalem during the period of the report," it continued.
The report cited that lack of information sharing to say it still finds Israel's assurances credible that it is using the American-made arms in accordance with international law, Reuters reported.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland, said the administration had "ducked all the hard questions" and avoided looking closely at whether Israel's conduct should mean military aid is cut off, the Associated Press reported.
"This report contradicts itself because it concludes that there are reasonable grounds to believe violations to international law have occurred, but at the same time that says they're not finding non compliance," Van Hollen told reporters.
The report was released just days after President Joe Biden threatened to withhold shipments of some weapons to Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu carries out his plan to invade the city of Rafah in Gaza in its efforts to root out Hamas.
"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," Biden said in an interview on CNN, adding that U.S. weapons have been used to kill civilians.
"Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers," he said.
More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's seven-month-old war on Hamas in Gaza, according to health officials in the Palestinian enclave.
