A report on the Fox news website stated that the US administration’s announcement to stop sending a shipment of bombs to Israel is the first decision of its kind whereby the United States withholds military aid that it has been providing without conditions to the occupying state throughout the war on the Gaza Strip.

Perhaps the Israeli operation in Rafah - the city located in the far south of the Strip and which includes more than a million displaced Palestinians - is what finally forced the administration of President Joe Biden to make such a decision, even though it was hesitant to make it, according to the American website.

The site's political affairs correspondent, Nicole Naria, says in her report that the US administration did not want to restrict military aid to Israel in any way, even though federal law requires it to do so when members of the foreign army - to which the United States provides aid - commit serious human rights violations.

The report adds that the decision comes at a time when the death toll in Gaza has exceeded 34,000, and a full-fledged famine has spread in the north, with the possibility of affecting the rest of the besieged areas of the Strip.

Leahy's law

The website indicated that a ceasefire agreement seemed imminent when the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) announced its acceptance of a draft proposal negotiated by Egyptian and Qatari mediators that includes the release of all Israeli prisoners who were detained by the Palestinian resistance during its attack on Israel on October 7 last year. However, Israel rejected the agreement under the pretext that the gap in the negotiations is still wide, according to the report.

Naria believes that if Washington continues to suspend sending weapons to Israel, this may indicate an actual shift in its policy of providing unconditional support to Israel.

Some foreign affairs experts say existing US laws aimed at protecting human rights - including the Leahy Law and the Foreign Assistance Act - should have long restricted the flow of military aid to Israel even before the Gaza war.

Last February, President Biden signed a new memorandum obligating countries receiving US security assistance to provide “reliable and credible written assurances” that they will use military aid in accordance with international law.

Conclusive evidence

According to that memorandum, Fox expects that the US government will issue an official decision as soon as this week deciding whether Israel has committed human rights violations by launching air strikes on Gaza and obstructing the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The website quoted reports that the shipment stopped by Washington included 1,800 bombs weighing 2,000 pounds and 1,700 bombs weighing 500 pounds, while the US administration is also considering suspending the sending of a new shipment containing 6,500 missiles capable of converting unguided bombs (dumb bombs) into precision-guided bombs.

The detained shipment could still be released depending on what Israel does next.

According to the report, American officials expressed particular concern about how two-thousand-pound bombs could be used to cause mass destruction in a densely populated urban area like Rafah, as has already happened in other parts of Gaza.

Former US administration officials and congressional staff previously told the site that the Leahy Law does not affect Israel despite human rights experts - whether inside or outside the US government - confirming that there is conclusive evidence proving that Israel committed human rights violations before and during the current war in Gaza.

Stopping the arms shipment to Israel may be a first step towards implementing the Leahy Law fairly, as the site’s correspondent believes in the conclusion of her report.

Source: Fox