US demands Israel answer questions about civilian casualties

The channel of communication was established after a meeting earlier this month between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israel’s war committee, in which Mr. Blinken expressed concern about “rampant” reports of Israeli airstrikes targeting humanitarian facilities or resulting in large numbers of civilian casualties.

In the meeting, in front of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Blinken said Washington needed to know “what the answers are” to questions surrounding these airstrikes, and aimed to set up “a stable channel of communication” so the US could regularly voice concerns related to similar issues with the Israeli government, an official said.

The existence of the initiative has never been reported, and the US officials asked to remain anonymous to discuss sensitive details.

The channel was created in response to growing pressure on the Biden administration over the high civilian casualty toll.

The incident also reflects Washington's frustration with Israel's failure to ease the suffering of civilians who have been starved of aid since mid-October 2023, including 62,000 wounded who are not receiving adequate medical treatment.

Another US official said that through this channel of communication, which has been operational for the past few weeks, Washington raised concerns “about every incident of concern” related to Israel’s operation in Gaza with the Israeli government . The Israeli government investigated and reported back to the US.

In some cases, the Israeli government provided additional information to explain a case, and in others, it admitted “making mistakes,” the official said, without elaborating on the details of those admissions.

The US government has set up this channel of communication to ensure Israel is accountable for its decisions, an official said. It is not yet clear what action Washington will take in response to information received through this channel.

Asked about the channel, a US State Department spokesman declined to comment directly but said Washington was clear that Israel needed to protect humanitarian infrastructure and take every precaution to minimize civilian casualties.

“When we receive concerning reports, we raise those incidents directly with the Israeli government and request additional information.”

The channel of communication operates through diplomats at the US embassy in Jerusalem, the State Department's Middle East bureau and President Joe Biden's special envoy for humanitarian affairs in the region, David Satterfield, officials said.

Most recently, the US government used the channel to seek details of the UN’s accusations on Wednesday that Israeli tanks had attacked a UN compound in Gaza where Palestinians were sheltering. The officials said they were not yet sure what response Israel had received.

Responsibility for one's actions

The effort is the first time Washington has formally pressed Israel to explain its high civilian casualty toll, and is second in seriousness only to Washington's decision to use the powerful tools it has used in investigations into past allegations of civilian atrocities.

One such tool is the war crimes determination process the United States undertook in 2022 in response to Russia’s special operations in Ukraine, which concluded that some members of the Russian armed forces had committed war crimes.

In December 2023, the US State Department used the above process to formally identify several warring groups in Sudan as having committed war crimes.

Human rights advocates have called on the US government to take tougher action to force Israel to change.

“After nearly four months, the Biden administration should have done more than discuss the concerns it has raised in public for months,” said Seth Binder of the Middle East Democracy Project, a human rights group. “It should have conditioned its support and aid on Israel making significant improvements and taking responsibility for its violations.”

The Biden administration has so far refused to directly criticize Israel over the civilian death toll in Gaza, although some of Mr. Biden’s senior advisers have insisted “too many” Palestinians have died in the conflict.

US officials have also declined to say whether Washington is considering investigating the possibility that Israel's battlefield actions violated international laws of war.

The United States provides Israel with $3.8 billion in military aid each year. While Washington often uses this aid to influence the behavior of its allies, the government has generally refrained from using this leverage with Israel, a decision critics say gives the country a sense of impunity.

US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said on Wednesday that any civilian deaths were “heartbreaking” but insisted it was not a US operation and that the Israeli military was responsible for investigating “credible allegations of violations of the laws of war when they are made”.

Israel launched a war to destroy Hamas after several of the organization's militias attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages.

Urgent international calls for a ceasefire to save civilians have largely failed, and Israel has pledged not to stop fighting until Hamas is destroyed and all hostages are freed.

Nguyen Quang Minh (according to Reuters)

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