Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of US foreign assistance since World War II, according to the Congressional Research Service. The US on average gives Israel US$3 billion in military aid per year, and the Biden administration sought an additional US$10.6 billion in military aid in the wake of Hamas’ October 07 attack in Israel.
Fragments of the US-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions guidance system were found in the rubble of destroyed homes in the neighborhood of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.
Israel uses a wide variety of US weapons and munitions, but Amnesty International’s report is one of the first attempts to tie an US-made weapon to a specific attack that left a significant number of civilians dead.
The JDAM is a guidance tail kit that converts existing unguided free-fall bombs into accurate, adverse weather smart munitions, according to the US Air Force.
Amnesty International said its weapons experts and a remote sensing analyst examined satellite imagery and photos of the homes that show the fragments of ordnance recovered from the rubble and the destruction, the report explains. Amnesty’s fieldworkers took the photos.
As a result of these two attacks, 19 children, 14 women, and 10 men were killed.
The human rights organization said it did not find any indication that there were any military objectives at the sites of the airstrikes or that the individuals living in the homes were legitimate military targets.
“The organization found that these air strikes were either direct attacks on civilians or civilian objects or indiscriminate attacks,” the report says, calling for the attacks to be investigated as war crimes.
In a statement to CNN, the Israel Defense Forces called the report flawed, biased and premature, based on baseless assumptions regarding the IDF’s operations.
“The assumption that intelligence regarding the military use of a particular structure does not exist unless revealed is contradictory to any understanding of military activity, and the report uses this flawed assumption to imply equally flawed and biased conclusions regarding the IDF, in line with existing biases and prior problematic work by this organization,” the IDF said.
The statement said that the military regrets any harm caused to civilians or civilian property as a result of its operations, and examines all its operations in order to learn and improve.
Amnesty International, in its report, said that the use of American weapons for such strikes should be an urgent wake-up call to the Biden administration.
“The US-made weapons facilitated the mass killings of extended families,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, according to the report.
The US State Department is reviewing Amnesty International’s report, spokesperson Matt Miller said Wednesday.
“We have made clear in our discussions with Israeli leaders that we are deeply concerned about the protection of civilians in this conflict,” Miller said. “We expect Israel to only target legitimate targets and to adhere to the laws of armed conflict.”
The Pentagon on Tuesday said it too was reviewing the report.
“We are going to continue to consult closely with our Israeli partners on the importance of taking civilian safety into account in conducting their operations,” spokesman Brigadier General Patrick Ryder told journalists.
“The US may share responsibility for serious violations of
international humanitarian law committed by Israel with US-supplied weapons, as
all states have a duty not to knowingly contribute to internationally wrongful
acts by other states,” Amnesty warned.
The human rights organization is urging the US government and other governments
to stop transferring arms to Israel that more likely than not will be used to
commit or heighten risks of violations of international law.
“A state that continues to supply arms being used to commit violations may share responsibility for these violations,” Amnesty said.
