State Department urged to submit late report scrutinising Israeli weapon use

The State Department has been urged to submit a delayed report to Congress on whether Israel is violating international humanitarian law in Gaza.

On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden told CNN that civilians had been killed as a consequence of US-supplied bombs and “other ways they go after population centers”.

Now Noura Erakat, human rights lawyer and associate professor at Rutgers University, and Josh Paul, a former State Department official who resigned in protest in late October, say Biden's comments should trigger the government to act immediately.

Erakat and Paul are the co-chairs of an independent taskforce which submitted evidence last month to the US government to show that Israel is using American weapons in violation of US National Security Memorandum-20.

Under the memorandum, the State Department had been due to deliver its report on Wednesday into Israel’s use of weapons in Gaza, but missed the deadline.

“Based on President Biden's acknowledgement, there is no remaining reason why the report should not accurately reflect Israel's misuse of US-provided weapons in violation of international law and US military best practice,” Erakat and Paul said in a statement on Thursday.