WASHINGTON - Some senior US officials have advised Secretary of State Antony Blinken that they do not find 'credible or reliable' Israel's assurances that it is using US-supplied weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law, according to an internal State Department memo reviewed by Reuters.
Palestinians inspecting the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Rafah, on April 21.WASHINGTON - Some senior US officials have advised Secretary of State Antony Blinken that they do not find "credible or reliable" Israel's assurances that it is using US-supplied weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law, according to an internal State Department memo reviewed by Reuters.
"Some components in the department favoured accepting Israel's assurances, some favoured rejecting them and some took no position," a US official said. These included repeatedly striking protected sites and civilian infrastructure; "unconscionably high levels of civilian harm to military advantage"; taking little action to investigate violations or to hold to account those responsible for significant civilian harm and "killing humanitarian workers and journalists at an unprecedented rate".
The State Department's legal bureau, known as the Office of the Legal Adviser, "did not take a substantive position" on the credibility of Israel's assurances, a source familiar with the matter said."On complex issues, the Secretary often hears a diverse range of views from within the Department, and he takes all of those views into consideration," he said.
Further deliberations between the department's bureaus are underway ahead of the report's deadline, the US official said. Israel's assault was launched in response to the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct 7, in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 250 others taken hostage.
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