US Army Officers Resign, Protest Washington Support To Israel

ILLUSTRATION/Residents of Gaza who fled due to Israeli/UNRWA attacks

JAKARTA - A US Army officer resigned in protest over Washington's support for Israel's war in Gaza.

Harrison Mann, an officer of the Defense Intelligence Service, said in his resignation letter he published on LinkedIn about the "infinite support" of the US to Israel "allows and empowers the killing and hunger of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians."

Mann felt contributing to this and said, "This makes me ashamed and guilty."

"This unconditional support also encourages reckless escalation which risks causing a wider war," he said as quoted by ANTARA from Anadolu, Tuesday, May 14.

Last month, Hala Rharrit, a spokesman for the US Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Middle East and North Africa, also stepped down in protest over Biden's policy of the Gaza Strip.

Rharrit has served various roles in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2005 and has been a spokesman for the Middle East and North Africa since August 2022.

He is the third Ministry of Foreign Affairs official to resign publicly since October 7, following Annele Sheline, an official for foreign affairs at the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Laboration, who withdrew last month.

Then Josh Paul, former director of the Political-Military Bureau, publicly announced his retirement in October 19.

Israel has launched a military offensive in Gaza since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian Hamas group on October 7 that killed about 1,200 people.

More than 35,000 Palestinians were killed, mostly women and children, and 78,700 others injured by mass destruction in Gaza.

More than seven months since Israel's war broke out, much of Gaza's territory was destroyed, forcing 85 percent of the enclave's population to flee amid food, clean water, and medicine blockades, the UN notes.

Israel is accused of committing genocide at the International Court, which has ordered Tel Aviv to ensure that its troops do not carry out the mass massacre and take action to ensure that humanitarian aid is provided to civilians in Gaza.