(Web Desk/Reuters) – A prejudiced US State Department’s annual human rights report likened Hamas and Palstenian Authority violations to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) turning a blind eye to the killings of over 34,000 innocent and unarmed civilians in Gaza.
Ironically, the report issued on Monday cited several reported rights violations committed in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza in 2023 by parties including the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, before and after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks, not singlling out Israel as prime violator.
Hamas, in its attack on Oct. 7 had killed around 1,200 Israelis, and in turn Israeli forces have so far killed 34,000 civilians in air attacks and bombing besides dismantling health system in Tel Aviv’s occupied and besieged West Bank and Gaza.
The Israeli assaults are continuing with the alleged backing of the US who vetoed several ceasefire resolutions in the United Nations Security Council and allowed Israel to continue its offensive by approving additional aid package for Tel Aviv. And US officials declined to say whether they would halt US aid to elements of Israel’s military over alleged abuses.
Israel’s war on Hamas has also plunged the Middle East into heightened instability and violence.
The Washington Post, in its news story mentioned US report as describing “the resulting conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip has had a significant negative impact on the status of human rights in Israel. The report also cited “credible” reports of “unlawful killings” by both Hamas and the Israeli government.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Oct. 7 attacks, which killed about 1,200 people, and the subsequent death of civilians during Israel’s military response in Gaza “have also raised deeply troubling human rights concerns.”
But Blinken stopped short of announcing a decision the Israeli government has suggested could be imminent to suspend US security aid to elements of the Israeli military because of alleged human rights abuses. While the Biden administration has declined to say whether it plans to bar aid to any unit under the Leahy Laws, Israeli officials have issued preemptive protests in recent days to such a move.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, a member of Israel’s special war cabinet, over the weekend cautioned the administration against targeting the Netzah Yehuda battalion, which he said was playing an important role in Israel’s battle against Hamas and Lebanese group Hezbollah. In 2022, the IDF disciplined several officials over the death of an elderly Palestinian American man in the unit’s custody.
Blinken said the United States would continue to make assessments about foreign nations’ records on human rights, and potentially authorize consequences for countries that fall short, regardless of their status as an enemy or partner of the United States. Washington has long been Israel’s chief ally and military backer.
“As we’re looking at human rights and the condition of human rights around the world, we apply the same standard to everyone,” he told reporters. “That doesn’t change whether the country in question is an adversary or competitor, a friend or an ally.”
Reuters reported that Blinken rejected suggestions that Washington might have a "double standard" when applying US law to allegations of abuses by the Israeli military in Gaza and said that examinations of such charges are ongoing.
"Do we have a double standard? The answer is no," Blinken told a news conference announcing the Department's annual human rights country reports.
"In general, as we're looking at human rights and the condition of human rights around the world, we apply the same standard to everyone. That doesn't change whether the country is an adversary, a competitor, a friend or an ally," he said.
"When it comes to allegations of incidents or whether it's violations of international humanitarian law, rights abuses...we have processes within the department that are looking at that incidents that have been raised. Those processes are ongoing," Blinken said.
He declined to provide when those processes might produce a definitive assessment.
Israel's military conduct has come under increasing scrutiny as its forces have killed 34,000 Palestinians in besieged Gaza, according to the enclave's health authorities, many of them civilians and children. The Gaza Strip has been reduced to a wasteland, and extreme food shortages have prompted fears of famine.
Rights groups have flagged numerous incidents of civilian harm during the Israeli army's offensive in Gaza, as well as raised alarm about rising violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Palestinian Health Ministry records show Israeli forces or settlers have killed at least 460 Palestinians since Oct. 7. But so far the Biden administration has said it has not found Israel in breach of international law.
Advocates have raised questions of double standards saying Washington has been quick to condemn the actions of, for example, Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, but the Biden administration has been careful not to go too far in its criticism of Israel.
Brian Finucane, Senior Adviser to the US Programme at the International Crisis Group pushed back on Blinken's comments, saying it was "disingenuous" to say partners and adversaries get the same treatment on the issue.
"With adversaries like Russia, there is a policy demand to make quasi-legal, public determinations about atrocity crimes. With partners like Israel, there is the opposite policy demand to avoid reaching any inconvenient legal conclusions," said Finucane, who formerly was a State Department lawyer.
Washington gives $3.8 billion in annual military assistance to its longtime ally. Leftist Democrats and Arab American groups have criticized the Biden administration's steadfast support for Israel, which they say provides it with a sense of impunity.
But this month, President Joe Biden for the first time threatened to condition support for Israel, and insisted that it take concrete steps to protect humanitarian aid workers and civilians.
Israel has denied allegations of deliberately causing humanitarian suffering in the enclave. It denies deliberately targeting civilians, accusing Hamas of using residential buildings for cover. Hamas denies this.
The State Department in its 2023 human rights report about Israel said the war with Hamas has had "a significant negative impact" on the human rights situation in Israel, and cited allegations of numerous incidents such as arbitrary or unlawful killings, enforced disappearance, torture and unjustified arrests of journalists among others.
Because the report covers 2023, it did not address the aftermath of a high-profile incident in which Israel’s military targeted an international aid convoy in April, killing seven people. An initial Israeli investigation into that incident found the IDF violated its own regulations. At least two officers were dismissed and other officials were reprimanded.
"Israeli authorities operating in Gaza took no publicly visible steps to identify and punish officials accused of committing human rights abuses," said the report, covering the incidents of last year.