The White House warned of the danger of Israeli war crimes in the days after Oct 7: Report | Israel-Palestine Conflicts News

Senior officials of the Pentagon and the Department of State have warned the administration of US President Joe Biden about possible Israeli war crimes in the days after the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, 2023, an investigation by the Reuters news agency.

Reuters reported on Friday that after reviewing three sets of emails between senior US administration officials between October 11 and 14, the officials warned that the rising death toll in Gaza could violate international law and affect US-US relations. -Arab.

“These messages also show internal pressure on the Biden administration to shift their messages from showing solidarity with Israel to include sympathy for the Palestinian people and the need to allow more aid to Gaza,” the investigation said.

In an email sent on October 11 – five days after the Hamas attack on Israel and the start of the attack on Gaza – the head of the US State Department, Bill Russo, told senior officials that the US is “losing the trust of Arabic speakers .the audience” by not talking about the tragedy in Gaza.

That day, the Ministry of Health in Gaza recorded a death toll of about 1,200 Palestinians.

“The lack of US response to aid conditions for the Palestinian people is not only ineffective and unhelpful, but we are also accused of being complicit in war crimes that may occur peacefully in Israel’s actions against civilians,” Russo wrote.

Russo urged the Biden administration to take immediate action and change its public stance in unwavering support for Israel’s response to the October 7 attack and its subsequent war in Gaza.

He later resigned in March, giving his reasons.

Exit leaflets

Two days later, on October 13, Israel dropped leaflets in northern Gaza, warning a million residents to leave their homes within 24 hours as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he would “exterminate Hamas”.

After a secret phone call with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), former deputy secretary of defense for the Middle East, Dana Stroul, wrote in an email that day to top aides to Biden that the aid organization “raises.” private alarm that Israel is close to committing war crimes”.

“It’s theirs [ICRC’s] The important thing is that it is impossible for a million citizens to leave this quickly,” wrote Stroul.

The Reuters report added that the US official in the email series also said “it would be impossible to do that without creating a ‘humanitarian crisis'”.

Other officials echoed the warning, calling on the administration to convince Israel to slow down its expulsion of civilians from southern Gaza, the report said.

It was on that day that the administration, for the first time, acknowledged the suffering of the Palestinian people during a press conference with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Doha, Qatar.

US weapons

Reuters has learned that on October 14, Israel’s top defense adviser emailed his US State Department counterpart asking for an expedited shipment of weapons.

Christopher Le Mon, deputy assistant secretary at the Department of State for Democracy, Labor and Human Rights (DRL), which reviews potential arms sales, recommended Israel’s rejection of weapons, citing the “conduct” of Israeli National Police units, including at the Yamam border. surveillance unit.

Le Mon said in the letter that there are “many reports” of Yamam’s involvement in “serious violations of human rights”.

Since the start of the war, the US has sent Israel dozens of weapons, including thousands of precision-guided missiles and 2,000-pound (900kg) bombs, Reuters added, citing several US officials.

Almost a year into Israel’s endless war in Gaza, the Ministry of Health said on Friday that at least 41,802 Palestinians have been killed and 96,844 wounded.