Situation Report In Gaza To Congress Not In Accordance, US State Department Officials Resign

A humanitarian aid truck from Egypt entered Gaza via Rafah. (Twitter/@PalestinineRCS)

JAKARTA - A US State Department official who resigned this week said on Thursday the decision he made was triggered by a government report to Congress that he said mistakenly stated Israel did not block humanitarian aid to Gaza, Palestine, a form of protest against Israeli policy by President Joe Biden.

The figure iswa Gilbert, who served in the State Department's Population, Refugee and Migration Bureau, the expert working on the report.

"Obviously something is right and wrong, and what is in the report is wrong," Gilbert said in an interview.

Gilbert, who worked in the State Department for more than 20 years, said he told his office on the day the State Department's report was released that he would resign. His last day was Tuesday.

The State Department submitted a 46-page undisclosed report earlier this month to Congress, as required in a new National Security Memorandum issued by President Biden in early February.

Among other conclusions, the report said in the period after October 7 Israel "was not fully cooperating" with the US and other efforts to incorporate humanitarian aid into Gaza.

However, they said that this was not a violation of US laws that blocked the supply of weapons to countries that limited US humanitarian aid.

Gilbert said the State Department had issued experts working on the report to Congress when the document was still in the form of a rough draft about 10 days before it was submitted. He said the report was then edited by more senior officials.

The Israeli Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Gilbert's allegations.

Unlike the published version, the last draft he saw stated Israel was blocking humanitarian aid, Gilbert said.

Prior to Gilbert, there were a number of State Department officials who resigned on policies on Gaza, including Arabic spokeswoman Hala Rharrit and Annelle Sheline from the human rights bureau.

Meanwhile, deputy US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters on Thursday he would not comment on the matter of personnel, but the department welcomed various points of view.

He said the government supports the report and continues to pressure the Israeli government to avoid injuring civilians and immediately expanding humanitarian access to Gaza.

"We are not a government that distorts the facts, and the accusations against us have no basis," Patel said.

The Gilbert Bureau is one of four bureaus contributing to an undisclosed initial option memo, which Reuters reported exclusively in late April, informing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Israel may violate international humanitarian law.

It is known that the United Nations and aid groups have long complained about the dangers and obstacles in getting help and distributing them throughout Gaza.

As the Palestinian death toll in Gaza has surpassed 36,000 and a humanitarian crisis has hit the enclave, human rights groups and other critics blame the US for providing weapons to Israel and largely defending Israel's behavior.