DayofPal– A group of US Democratic senators is urging Secretary of State Marco Rubio to promptly investigate “many hundreds” of human rights violations by Israeli military units in Gaza.
The lawmakers, led by Senators Chris Van Hollen and Jack Reed, sent a letter Tuesday warning that continued delays in reviewing cases of killings, torture, and other abuses undermine the enforcement of US laws that restrict security assistance to foreign military units implicated in atrocities, The Washington Post reported.
The letter was also signed by Democratic Senators Jeff Merkley, Elizabeth Warren, Edward J. Markey, Peter Welch, Brian Schatz, Tim Kaine, Patty Murray, and Tina Smith, as well as Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats.
“Without effective enforcement mechanisms, these laws and policies become meaningless,” the senators wrote.
The officials referenced a classified report produced by the State Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), which found that adjudicating the full set of alleged violations could take “multiple years.”
The review falls under the Leahy Laws, which prohibit the United States from providing financial or military assistance to foreign military units responsible for grave human rights abuses.
The US government has previously identified several attacks involving Israeli forces, including the April 2024 killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers and the February 2024 deaths of more than 100 Palestinians during an aid distribution in Gaza City, widely referred to as the “Flour Massacre.”
“Given these findings,” the senators wrote, “we urge you to quickly implement the OIG’s recommendations and adjudicate these cases in a timely manner to ensure compliance with US law.”
Israeli military operations since October 7, 2023, have resulted about 70,000 Palestinian deaths, according to Gaza authorities.
Numerous international and Israeli human rights organizations, UN experts, and legal scholars have described Israel’s actions as constituting genocide; a recent UN Commission of Inquiry also stated that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.
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