The international response to the crisis in Gaza reached a critical point last week as a United Nations panel issued a report stating that Israeli military actions in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza align with “the characteristics of genocide.” This assessment directly challenges recent comments from the Biden administration, which maintains that Israel is not obstructing humanitarian assistance in Gaza. The panel’s findings come amid increased scrutiny over the United States’ role in the conflict as it continues to supply military support to Israel despite mounting allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“Since the beginning of the war, Israeli officials have publicly supported policies that strip Palestinians of the very necessities required to sustain life—food, water, and fuel,” stated the U.N. committee. The report highlighted that the systematic denial of these life-sustaining resources is directly impacting the survival of Palestinians and suggested that these policies are being used as tools of political and military strategy. “These statements, along with the systematic and unlawful interference of humanitarian aid, make clear Israel’s intent to instrumentalize lifesaving supplies for political and military gains.”
The committee’s report describes the severe impact of Israel’s siege over Gaza, which includes blocking humanitarian aid and launching targeted attacks that have killed civilians and aid workers. Despite repeated appeals from the United Nations, binding orders from the International Court of Justice, and multiple Security Council resolutions, the Israeli military’s operations in Gaza continue to disrupt essential civilian life. According to the UN panel, “Israel is intentionally causing death, starvation, and serious injury, using starvation as a method of war, and inflicting collective punishment on the Palestinian population.”
The UN’s report portrays a harrowing scene of Gaza as it has endured relentless bombardment since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. The report emphasizes the toll on Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, describing the enclave as a “wasteland of rubble, garbage, and human remains.” Over the past 13 months, the report notes that women and children have comprised nearly 70 percent of those killed by Israeli forces, underscoring the humanitarian toll. Constant bombing has left Gaza’s water and sanitation systems in disarray, further worsening the public health crisis and compounding the humanitarian disaster.
Israeli forces have also targeted agricultural land, a strategy that, when coupled with Israel’s longstanding blockade, has left Palestinians in Gaza facing famine-like conditions. According to the UN panel, “By destroying vital water, sanitation, and food systems, and contaminating the environment, Israel has created a lethal mix of crises that will inflict severe harm on generations to come.”
A significant aspect of this crisis is the involvement of U.S. military aid. The Biden administration recently concluded a 30-day period to evaluate whether Israel was illegally obstructing humanitarian aid flows in Gaza. Despite evidence provided by aid groups showing that conditions in Gaza have only deteriorated, the U.S. ultimately determined that Israel’s actions did not meet the criteria for aid obstruction, thus allowing continued military support. Aid organizations, however, counter that the humanitarian situation “deteriorated further” during this period, with some groups asserting that Israel’s military actions “dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in northern Gaza.”
This continued U.S. support has led to criticism from human rights groups like Human Rights Watch (HRW), which accuses the United States of complicity in the conflict. HRW has called Israel’s forced displacement of Palestinian civilians a “grave harm” without “plausible imperative military reason.” The group urged immediate action, stating, “The United States, Germany, and other countries should immediately suspend weapons transfers and military assistance to Israel. Continuing to provide arms to Israel risks complicity in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other grave human rights violations.”
Meanwhile, progressive voices in the U.S. Senate, led by Senator Bernie Sanders, have moved to address this crisis legislatively. Sanders announced his intention to bring a floor vote on resolutions aimed at blocking a proposed $20 billion arms sale to Israel, which would include the transfer of munitions, tanks, and artillery shells. These arms, Sanders argues, are being used in “violation of U.S. and international law.” Sanders’ resolutions are backed by other progressive Senators, including Peter Welch, Jeff Merkley, and Brian Schatz.
Sanders has been vocal in condemning the actions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, stating, “There is no longer any doubt that Netanyahu’s extremist government is in clear violation of U.S. and international law as it wages a barbaric war against the Palestinian people in Gaza.” He further elaborated on the devastation in Gaza, noting that “out of a population of 2.2 million, over 43,000 Palestinians have been killed and 102,000 injured—60 percent percent of whom are women, children, or elderly people. Israel has destroyed 70 percent of the housing in Gaza, the civilian infrastructure, the healthcare system, and hundreds of schools. It has bombed every one of Gaza’s 12 universities.”
For Sanders, the issue is not only one of foreign policy but of moral and humanitarian responsibility. He underscored this point in a recent address, emphasizing, “As horrific as the last year has been, the current situation is even worse. Today, Israel continues to restrict the flow of food and medicine to desperate people. Tens of thousands of Palestinians face malnutrition and starvation. The volume of aid reaching Gazans is lower than at any time in the last year. Blocking humanitarian aid violates the Foreign Assistance Act as well as the Geneva Convention.”
As Sanders’ resolutions move closer to a potential vote, nearly 100 organizations have voiced their support, urging Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand to back these measures. These groups argue that “the Senate will soon have the opportunity to demonstrate that it opposes further suffering and stands for the rule of law and the protection of civilians by supporting the joint resolutions.”
This level of UN scrutiny, framing Israel’s actions as “consistent with genocide,” is highly unusual and signals the severity of the situation. The UN report closes with a stark message to the global community: “It is the collective responsibility of every state to stop supporting the assault on Gaza and the apartheid system in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”
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