State Department spokesman Vedant Patel stressed on Monday that no conclusions have been reached by the U.S. on whether Israel possibly violated international law in Gaza after a critical report on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018The report makes clear that this is a very complex and complicated battlefield. It is a very dense and urban setting. We are also dealing with the belligerent, in this case, Hamas, that has a clear track record and history of co-locating itself with civilians and civilian infrastructure, using civilians as human shields,\u2019 Patel told reporters at a press conference. \u2018The IDF has undertaken steps to implement international humanitarian law obligations for the protection of civilians in the current conflict.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018We also are clear in our report that it\u2019s reasonable to assess that defense articles covered under the National Security Memorandum has been used by Israeli security forces in instances that are inconsistent with its obligations. But we also have no direct indication of Israel intentionally targeting civilians,\u2019 he added. \u2018Israel does have a number of ongoing active criminal investigations pending, and there are hundreds of other cases under administrative review. Israel has taken steps to and is taking steps to hold itself and its actions accountable.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
His remarks come after Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered an overdue national security memorandum to Congress on Friday that said Israel\u2019s use of U.S.-provided weapons in Gaza likely violated international humanitarian law, though wartime conditions prevented American officials from determining that for certain in specific airstrikes. The critical report also noted Israel has had to confront an \u2018extraordinary military challenge,\u2019 as Hamas \u2018has embedded itself deliberately within and underneath the civilian population to use civilians as human shields.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
The report states Hamas \u2018intentionally uses schools, hospitals, residential buildings, and international organization facilities for military purposes\u2019 and \u2018constructed a vast tunnel network beneath this civilian infrastructure not to protect civilians, but to hide its leaders and fighters and from which it stages and launches attacks.\u2019 Hamas also continues to hold more than 100 hostages in Gaza.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Given the nature of Hamas\u2019s track record of co-locating itself with civilians using civilians as human shields, we\u2019re unable to make a conclusive determination as it relates to violations of international humanitarian law,\u2019 Patel said on Monday. \u2018There is a moral and strategic imperative to take every possible step to minimize civilian casualties, steps that we know that the IDF has the tools and the capability to undertake.\u2026 But simultaneously that this is also a belligerent that is using civilians as human shields. And therefore, we\u2019ve not been able to come to any kind of conclusive conclusion on this.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018We didn\u2019t issue this memorandum because we thought any country was necessarily violating these standards,\u2019 he added. \u2018Instead, we wanted to be transparent about the standards that we require countries to adhere to and offer an assessment of a certain time period that the national security memorandum is consistent with.\u2019<\/p>\n
Blinken on Sunday delivered some of the Biden administration\u2019s strongest public criticism yet of Israel\u2019s conduct in the war in Gaza, saying Israeli tactics have meant \u2018a horrible loss of life of innocent civilians\u2019 but failed to neutralize Hamas leaders and fighters and could drive a lasting insurgency. In a pair of TV interviews, Blinken underscored that the United States believes Israeli forces should \u2018get out of Gaza,\u2019 but also is waiting to see credible plans from Israel for security and governance in the territory after the war.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hamas has reemerged in parts of Gaza, Blinken said, and \u2018heavy action\u2019 by Israeli forces in the southern city of Rafah risks leaving America\u2019s closest Mideast ally \u2018holding the bag on an enduring insurgency.\u2019<\/p>\n
He said the United States has worked with Arab countries and others for weeks on developing \u2018credible plans for security, for governance, for rebuilding\u201d in Gaza, but \u2018we haven\u2019t seen that come from Israel\u2026. We need to see that, too.\u2019 Blinken also said that as Israel pushes deeper in Rafah in the south, a military operation may \u2018have some initial success\u2019 but risks \u2018terrible harm\u2019 to the population without solving a problem \u2018that both of us want to solve, which is making sure Hamas cannot again govern Gaza.\u2019<\/p>\n
More than a million Palestinians have crowded into Rafah in hopes of refuge as Israel\u2019s offensive pushed across the Gaza Strip. Israel has said the city also hosts four battalions of Hamas fighters.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s handling of the war, Blinken said, has put the country \u2018on the trajectory, potentially, to inherit an insurgency with many armed Hamas left or, if it leaves, a vacuum filled by chaos, filled by anarchy, and probably refilled by Hamas. We\u2019ve been talking to them about a much better way of getting an enduring result, enduring security.\u2019<\/p>\n
The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n\n
State Department spokesman Vedant Patel stressed on Monday that no conclusions have been reached by the U.S. on whether Israel possibly violated international law in Gaza after a critical report on Friday.\u00a0 \u2018The report makes clear that this is a very complex and complicated battlefield. It is a very dense and urban setting. We are <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":19078,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19077","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}