WASHINGTON, May 9 (APP): Human rights advocates have called the recent decision by US President Joe Biden to suspend a shipment of thousand-pound bombs to Israel is too little too late to undo the damage to Palestinian life in Gaza by Israel’s deadly war machine.
The government watchdog groups and rights advocates also said the shipment pause also falls short of what the Biden administration’s policy and US law require in terms of weapons transfers.
The news of the halt in shipments, first reported by Axios on Monday with few details of what arms would be halted, was later reported by several American news outlets which noted the transfer consisted of 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs.
During a congressional hearing on Wednesday, US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin linked the paused shipment to Washington’s concerns about an Israeli invasion of Rafah, southern Gaza City.
“We’ve been very clear…from the very beginning, that Israel shouldn’t launch a major attack into Rafah without accounting for and protecting the civilians that are in that battlespace.” “And again, as we have assessed the situation, we have paused one shipment of high payload munitions,” he told a Senate hearing.
Austin added that the US has “not made a final determination on how to proceed with that shipment”.
Josh Paul, a former State Department official, said that rather than “a one-off pause of a shipment as a means of exerting momentary and overdue leverage, this needs to be the start of a sea-change in American policy towards the provision of security assistance to Israel”.
“A real change in American policy would come, of course, too late for so many souls in Gaza,” said Paul who resigned in October citing Biden’s policy on Gaza.
On Wednesday, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said they are reviewing further arms packages to Israel over concerns with the Rafah offensive.
The US move comes on the heels of two major developments in Gaza this week. The first was Hamas’s announcement that it had accepted a Qatari-Egyptian ceasefire proposal, negotiated with CIA director William Burns. But Israel refused to accept the deal.
But while the administration had framed the transfer as being linked to American concerns that Israel should account for the protection of civilian life in its plan to invade Rafah, watchdog groups say the government should be suspending many more weapons transfers.
“This is a good start, but it also falls far short of what US law and the Biden administration’s own policy require. This sort of suspension was necessary many months ago,” John Chappell, an advocacy and legal fellow at the Center for Civilians in Conflict (Civic), said.
“The decision should be extended to transfers of all weapons that pose a risk of being used to harm civilians or violate international law. And the harms resulting from US policy already can’t be undone.”
In February, the administration agreed, after pressure from US lawmakers, to invoke National Security Memorandum 20, which required the administration to make a determination as to whether Israel has used US weapons in violation of international law in Gaza. If that is the case, Washington would have to suspend military assistance to the country.
Israel provided a letter of assurance that it was complying with international law in April, and the Biden administration had a deadline on Wednesday to issue its final conclusion. That conclusion has reportedly been delayed by a few days.
Some members of Congress have meanwhile been pushing a stronger line against the transfer of weapons to Israel.
Since Oct 7, Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, most of whom are women and children, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Israeli forces have also levelled entire residential blocks, targeted schools and hospitals, and killed medical workers and journalists.
“A real change in American policy would come, of course, too late for so many souls in Gaza,” said Paul.
A UN assessment last week stated that the estimated cost for Gaza’s reconstruction would be between $30-40bn.
“It will take many years, decades even, for people in Gaza to recover from the effects of explosive weapons like 2000-pound bombs being used in cities. We’re talking widespread harm to generations,” said Chappell.
Paul, however, said that any real change in US policy on the war in Gaza “must begin now, and this suspension of bombs must be not a solitary event linked to a tactical decision, but the first step towards a new policy”.
And as Israeli troops currently occupy parts of Rafah, despite repeated warnings by the US not to launch an invasion of the area, there is little assurance that Washington is pushing Israel to avoid civilian harm and abide by international law in Gaza.
