As Human Rights Watch reports, the U.S. government has been funding the Israeli government with arms and other military aid, since the start of the war.
The BBC reported that, just before leaving office, the Biden administration and Department of State had asked the Congress to deliver $8bn arms to Israel. This sale would include missiles and shells among other types of ammunition. This is in contrast to the report that the same administration gave to the Congress in May 2024 regarding the National Security Memorandum 20. The report explained that American bombs and arms were used by Israel to bombard and kill civilians in the Strip, violating the International Humanitarian Law (IHL).
As consequence of this, U.S. is facing the possibility to be condemned for complicity in war crimes, act of genocide, and crimes against humanity, as the International Law Commission of the United Nations (UN) in a report published in 2001 affirmed in art.16 that “A State which aids or assists another State in the commission of an internationally wrongful act by the latter is internationally responsible for doing so if: a. That State does so with knowledge of the circumstances of the internationally wrongful act; and b. The act would be internationally wrongful if committed by that State.”
The situation in Gaza respects those criteria, as the U.S. are believed to have the knowledge that their aids, among which there are the 2,000-pound bombs, would be used by Israel in violation of IHL. Also, their position is worsened, as the consequences of bombings are the starvation of the people in Gaza, the destruction of health and energy facilities and all the other infrastructure. The possibility of being condemned is supported by the International Court of Justice, in response to the South Africa case against Israel under Genocide Convention of 1948, declared that this complicity is plausible.
Bruno Stagno, chief advocacy officer at Human Rights Watch, affirmed that if Trump wants to respect what he said in the electoral campaign about that being “their war”, he should start by stopping the shipments of weapons. To nor be condemned, weapon shipments should be interrupted.
However, President Trump seems not to be interested in doing so, as he released the shipment, didn’t stop the shipment of the 2,000-pound bombs, and talked about the U.S. “finishing the job” as Netanyahu did, basically talking about a solution for ethnic cleansing, as affirmed by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.).
To read more, please visit:
Suspend Arms Transfers to End US Complicity in Israeli Abuses | Human Rights Watch
Biden plans to send $8bn arms shipment to Israel
https://casebook.icrc.org/case-study/international-law-commission-articles-state-responsibility
U.S. Halt to Foreign Aid Does Not Apply to Arms to Israel and Egypt - The New York Times
https://www.hrw.org/about/people/bruno-stagno-ugarte
Summary of the Order of 26 January 2024 | INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE
https://casebook.icrc.org/case-study/international-law-commission-articles-state-responsibility
Trump says US will ‘take over the Gaza Strip’ - POLITICO
