‘A Slap in the Face’: Human Rights Groups Blast the State Department’s Report on Israel

The report said it “is reasonable to assess” that Israel has broken international humanitarian laws in Gaza but concluded U.S. military aid to Israel does not need to stop.

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the central Gaza Strip on March 22, 2024.
The State Department cited “credible” reports of incidents that went against international humanitarian law, but noted that Israel is facing an “extraordinary military challenge” in its National Security Memorandum on the war in Gaza. Abdel Kareem Hana/AP

International human rights groups said the State Department’s report on the war in Gaza, which concluded that the United States does not have to cut off military support to Israel, missed the mark.

“The report is a slap in the face to the Palestinian and international human rights and humanitarian organizations that provided firsthand accounts and evidence — backed by experts within the administration — on the assumption that their input would be evaluated in good faith,” Oxfam CEO Abby Maxman said in a statement in response to the findings in the national security memorandum.

Amnesty International, the only nongovernmental organization with personnel on the ground in Gaza, documenting and conducting independent investigations on Israel’s actions, was similarly disappointed in the United States’ findings.