Senior Pentagon and Department of State officials warned US President Joe Biden’s administration of potential Israeli war crimes days after the start of the October 7, 2023, war on Gaza, an investigation by the Reuters news agency finds.
Reuters reported on Friday that after reviewing three sets of email exchanges between senior US administration officials, dated between October 11 and 14, officials had sounded the alarm that a rising death toll in Gaza could violate international law and affect US ties to the Arab world.
“The messages also show internal pressure in the Biden administration to shift its messaging from showing solidarity with Israel to including sympathy for Palestinians and the need to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza,” the investigation found.
In an email sent on October 11 – five days after Hamas’s attack on Israel and the start of the offensive in Gaza – the US State Department’s top public diplomacy official, Bill Russo, told senior officials that the US was “losing credibility among Arabic-speaking audiences” by not addressing the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
On that day, Gaza’s Health Ministry had recorded a death toll of about 1,200 Palestinians.
“The US’s lack of response on the humanitarian conditions for Palestinians is not only ineffective and counterproductive, but we are also being accused of being complicit to potential war crimes by remaining silent on Israel’s actions against civilians,” Russo wrote.
Russo urged Biden’s administration to take swift action and change its public stance from its unwavering support of Israel’s response to the October 7 attack and its subsequent war on Gaza.
He later resigned from office in March, citing personal reasons.
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