Khaberni - Two years after the bloody war in the Gaza Strip, five former U.S. officials revealed that the United States gathered intelligence last year indicating that legal advisors in the Israeli military warned of evidence that could support accusations of Israel committing war crimes in Gaza, involving operations relying on weapons supplied by Washington.
The former officials added that this information, previously undisclosed, was among the most surprising intelligence reports presented to top U.S. decision-makers during the war. It pointed to doubts within the Israeli military about the legality of its methods, in stark contrast to Israel's public stance defending its operations, according to Reuters.
During Biden's tenure
Two of the U.S. officials stated that this information was not widely circulated within the U.S. government until late in the term of former President Joe Biden, when it was disseminated more broadly before a Congressional briefing session in December 2024.
U.S. officials expressed concern about these findings, especially since the rising number of civilian casualties in Gaza raised fears that Israeli operations might violate international legal standards regarding acceptable collateral damage.
However, the U.S. officials who spoke with Reuters did not detail the nature of the evidence, like specific war incidents, that concerned the Israeli military advisors.
Heightening the Debate
This intelligence information led to the convening of an interagency meeting at the National Security Council, where officials and legal advisors discussed how to respond to the new findings and whether they should be addressed.
Note that an American acknowledgment of Israeli war crimes would, under U.S. law, require an end to future shipments of weaponry to Israel and cessation of intelligence exchanges with it.
Officials from various government sectors, including the State Department, Defense (Pentagon), intelligence agencies, and the White House, engaged in discussions under the Biden administration in December.
Biden's national security advisors were also briefed on the matter.
Furthermore, three of the past officials clarified that the debate over whether the Israelis had committed war crimes in Gaza concluded when lawyers from various U.S. government departments stated that it was still legal for Washington to continue supporting Israel with arms and intelligence, justifying this by stating that Washington had not gathered its own evidence that Israel was violating the laws of armed conflict. They relied on the fact that the intelligence and evidence collected by the United States itself did not prove the Israelis intentionally killed civilians and humanitarian workers or prevented the entry of aid, a key factor in legal responsibility.
Meanwhile, some top officials in the Biden administration were concerned that a formal U.S. conclusion that Israel had committed war crimes would force Washington to stop military and intelligence support, a step they worried would embolden Hamas, prolong ceasefire negotiations, and change the political landscape in favor of the armed group.
On the other hand, the officials confirmed that the decision to continue in the same vein irritated some stakeholders who believed that the Biden administration should be firmer in revealing Israeli violations and the American role in enabling them.
The officials added that former President Donald Trump and his officials also received a briefing from the Biden team about this intelligence information, but showed little interest, after taking power in January, and began to align more strongly with the Israelis.
International Concerns
It is worth mentioning that even before Washington obtained intelligence related to war crimes from within the Israeli military, some lawyers in the State Department, which supervises legal assessments of foreign military conduct, repeatedly expressed their concerns to the former U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Israel might be committing war crimes, as affirmed by the former officials.
In November last year, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the former Israeli Defense Minister, as well as Hamas leader Mohammed Deif, on charges of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in the conflict in Gaza.
