The Biden Administration Is Investigating Israel's Possible War Crimes — Despite Public Claims To The Contrary

A month ago, White House spokesperson John Kirby declared Washington was so confident in Israel’s U.S.-backed offensive in Gaza that the U.S. did not need to investigate its actions.

“I’m not aware of any kind of formal assessment being done by the United States government to analyze the compliance with international law by our partner Israel,” Kirby told reporters on Jan. 4, as the Biden administration rallied to defend Israel against an International Court of Justice case arguing Israel was violating international protections against genocide. “We have not seen anything that would convince us that we need to take a different approach in terms of trying to help Israel defend itself.”

His comment echoed a string of similar claims from Biden administration officials. Their public narrative helps bolster U.S. claims that Israel is respecting global standards for fighting in pursuing Hamas in Gaza, and helps undercut the ICJ genocide case and other efforts to examine Israel’s conduct.

But internally, U.S. officials have been assessing possible international law violations by Israel for months, and they are continuing to do so, HuffPost has learned from three sources familiar with private discussions about the assessments.

At the State Department, officials are probing Israeli actions in Gaza which they believe may have broken international law, a State official familiar with discussions in recent weeks told HuffPost. State’s attorneys have tracked such examples for months, the official said.

The investigations are occurring through several avenues.

State is investigating whether Israel, a major recipient of American aid, has committed human rights abuses that violate U.S. law, the official said. Such violations could