US officials in the Joe Biden administration repeatedly warned that Israel was committing war crimes in Gaza. The White House ignored the reports to avoid cutting military aid to Israel.
Five former US officials told Reuters that in December 2023, the State Department’s legal team brought reports to Secretary Antony Blinken showing Israel was breaching international law and committing war crimes in Gaza.
Later, the US obtained intelligence that Israeli military leaders had concluded there was evidence to support war crimes charges against Israel. Late in the Biden presidency, US officials were alarmed that Israel’s onslaught in Gaza “might breach international legal standards on acceptable collateral damage.”
However, the intelligence and assessments were ignored. If the White House had recognized that Israel was committing war crimes in Gaza, US law would mandate cutting military assistance to Tel Aviv.
Reuters reports, “Some senior Biden administration officials feared that a formal US finding of Israeli war crimes would force Washington to cut off arms and intelligence support.”
According to US officials speaking with the HuffPost, Biden personally considered intelligence before leaving office, but elected not to reduce support for Israel. The officials said White House adviser Brett McGurk was key to the Biden administration not determining Israel was committing war crimes and violating US law in Gaza.
Some officials were concerned that Israel’s actions in the Strip could lead to them being targeted for supporting the Israeli onslaught. After the October 7 Hamas attacks, Washington flooded Tel Aviv with tens of billions of dollars in weapons, fueling the destruction in Gaza.
While the Biden administration never concluded Israel was conducting a genocide, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Additionally, the International Court of Justice determined in 2024 that it was plausible that Israel was committing genocide.
Multiple human rights organizations and US lawmakers have stated that Israel’s war on Gaza is a genocide, including Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene.
The former Biden administration officials told Reuters that incoming Trump administration officials on the intelligence about Israel’s war crimes, and they “showed little interest in the subject.”
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, over 68,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, 2023. That number is considered an undercount, as at least tens of thousands of Palestinians are dead and buried beneath the rubble. The Health Ministry’s count also does not include access deaths, such as the people who succumbed to starvation or treatable illness, but died due to the Israeli destruction of the Gaza health care system.
