A classified report by a U.S. government watchdog has found that Israeli military units committed “many hundreds” of potential violations of U.S. human rights law in the Gaza Strip that would take the State Department “multiple years” to review, according to two U.S. officials who relayed the details to
The Washington Post.
The findings by the State Department’s Office of Inspector General mark the first time a U.S. government report has acknowledged the scale of Israeli actions in Gaza that fall under the purview of Leahy Laws, the landmark legislation that bars U.S. security assistance to foreign military units credibly accused of gross human rights abuses.
U.S. officials, who discussed details of the report on the condition of anonymity because the contents were classified, said the watchdog findings raised doubts about the prospects for accountability for Israel’s actions given the large backlog of incidents and the nature of the review process, which is deferential to the Israel Defense Forces.
“What worries me is that accountability will be forgotten now that the noise of the conflict is dying down,” said Charles Blaha, a former State Department official in charge of the office that implements the Leahy Laws, who was told about the report.
The office of the inspector general declined to comment for this article but has acknowledged the report’s existence on its website. “This report contains information that is Classified and is not available for public viewing,” the webpage says.
