РУССКИЙ
10:02 02.11.2025 •
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.
The State Department and the IDF did not respond to requests for comment.
The report was completed just days before Israel and Hamas entered into a ceasefire agreement that saw the release of the remaining living Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces and the resumption of some humanitarian aid into war-ravaged Gaza.
Though the ceasefire technically remains in effect, Tuesday marked the deadliest day since the accord was struck, with Israeli airstrikes killing at least 104 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, after Israel accused militants of killing an Israeli soldier.
Israel’s two-year military campaign in Gaza, which has killed nearly 70,000 Palestinians since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack on southern Israel, has tested the Leahy Laws’ effectiveness. High-profile incidents in Gaza pending a determination are numerous, including the killing of seven World Central Kitchen workers by Israel in April 2024 and the killing of more than 100 Palestinians and wounding of 760 others gathered around aid trucks near Gaza City in February 2024, according to local health authorities.
Though members of the Israeli unit ultimately faced no criminal penalties, the Biden administration said it was satisfied with the measures taken by the Israeli government and noted that the individuals in question no longer serve in the military.
The Trump administration has pursued a similar hands-off approach to the IDF but without reciting the previous administration’s bromides about putting “human rights at the center of U.S. foreign policy.”
The U.S. provides at least $3.8 billion in aid to Israel every year — and in recent years tens of billions of dollars more — making the country the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. aid in the world.
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