A State Department report has found “reasonable” evidence that Israel has violated international humanitarian law using US weapons in Gaza, according to the Associated Press.
The long-awaited report could have required the US to stop sending weapons to its ally if it had violated the terms of a weapons agreement.
But the investigation could not immediately link the violations to US arms, which leaves the Biden administration with some leeway on whether to restrict future sales.
An earlier story by the AP, citing an unnamed official, said that the report was expected to find Israel had not broken international humanitarian law.
The report was the result of a presidential directive that came following pressure from Democrats to force the administration to rule on whether US-made weapons sent to Israel were being used lawfully.
It is unclear if the US will continue to investigate if the violations contained in the report were carried out with US weapons.
A separate investigation by Amnesty International found that US munitions were used in two “deadly, unlawful air strikes on homes full of civilians in the occupied Gaza Strip” in October.
“The fact that US-made munitions are being used by Israeli military in unlawful attacks with deadly consequences for civilians should be an urgent wake-up call to the Biden administration. The US-made weapons facilitated the mass killings of extended families,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
Israel insists it abides by international humanitarian law and blames Hamas for high civilian casualties for operating near civilians. It says it is fighting an existential battle against Hamas.
Mr Biden in December said “indiscriminate bombing” was costing Israel international backing, but this is the first time the US government has directly linked Israel to war crimes.
Senator Chris Van Hollen, who spearheaded the push for the investigation, told The Independent earlier this week: “This report will be a test of the Biden administration’s credibility as to whether or not they’re willing to look at all the facts and apply the law to the war in Gaza.”
In recent days, President Joe Biden explicitly threatened for the first time to withhold the delivery of weapons to Israel if it launched a major ground operation in the border city of Rafah.
Mr Biden made the declaration in an interview with CNN during a visit to Wisconsin on Wednesday, telling anchor Erin Burnett that he won’t stop the flow of defensive weapons like the interceptors used for Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system even if he cuts off the flow of munitions such as the shipment of 2,000 lb bombs he acknowledged putting a hold on.
“We’re going to continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks that came out of the Middle East recently,” he said. “But it’s, it’s just wrong. We’re not going to – we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells.”