In October of last year, as Israel’s attacks began costing the lives of thousands of civilians in Gaza, it emerged that numerous American officials had warned the government via secret emails. They wrote that the mass evacuation would be a humanitarian catastrophe and could lead to accusations of war crimes by violating international law. Just a few days after the crisis began, Reuters reviewed three email chains among senior US government officials from October 11-14. Officials highlighted the government’s ineffectiveness, announcing their resignations one by one during the war. Meanwhile, President Biden’s comments on Gaza granted Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu significant leeway against Hamas. How did the US government, disregarding all warnings, become complicit step by step in the massacre in Gaza? Israel began bombing the north of Gaza in October last year and ordered the evacuation of over a million Palestinians from the region.
As the attacks, costing the lives of thousands of civilians, started, a senior Pentagon official sent a sharp warning to the White House. Dana Stroul, who was then the Deputy Defense Secretary responsible for the Middle East, in an email to President Joe Biden’s senior deputies on October 13, wrote that the mass evacuation would be a humanitarian catastrophe and could lead to accusations of war crimes against Israel by violating international law.
Stroul was relaying an evaluation from the International Red Cross Committee that “sent chills down his spine.” Reuters, just a few days after the crisis began, reviewed three email chains among senior US government officials from October 11-14.
The previously unreported emails revealed an early warning about the increasing loss of life in Gaza violating international law and endangering America’s ties in the Arab world.
The messages also showed internal pressure within the Biden administration to sympathize with Palestinians and allow further humanitarian aid to Gaza. According to three senior US officials involved in the decision-making process, Washington was slow to address the suffering of Palestinians.
Following Israeli airstrikes hitting hospitals, schools, and mosques in Gaza, Bill Russo, the top public diplomacy official at the State Department, in an email dated October 11, said that due to Washington’s failure to address the humanitarian crisis directly, the government had “lost credibility.” Russo wrote that US diplomats in the Middle East were accusing Israel of committing “genocide” and Washington of being complicit in war crimes by remaining silent about Israel’s actions. Russo used the words, “US not responding to any of the humanitarian conditions for the Palestinians makes us not just ineffective and inefficient; we are accused of being complicit in potential war crimes by staying silent on Israel’s actions against civilians.” Addressing State Department officials, Russo called for swift action to change the administration’s unconditional support stance toward Israel and its operations in Gaza.
Russo wrote, “If this path is not quickly reversed through action, we risk undermining our position in the region in the coming years.” Russo resigned in March for personal reasons.
US officials continued to emphasize Israel’s right to self-defense and plans to provide military assistance to Jerusalem. Two days after Russo’s email on October 13, Israeli planes dropped leaflets warning a million residents to evacuate their homes in the north of Gaza.
Netanyahu gave the region’s inhabitants 24 hours to flee as Israeli forces backed by tanks started a ground incursion on the lands with a population of 2.3 million.
The evacuation order put aid organizations and the United Nations on high alert. By that time, Israeli air strikes had devastated all areas.
The International Red Cross Committee (ICRC) in Geneva released a statement saying that Israel’s evacuation order was “not in line with international humanitarian law” as it would cut off food, water, and other essentials in Gaza.
According to several senior US officials who spoke to Reuters, some American officials were concerned there was no safe way out of densely populated Gaza.
The Israeli army had imposed a broad blockade. Humanitarian groups would need months to provide support to displaced civilians.
Paula Tufro, a senior White House official responsible for humanitarian intervention, wrote, “Our assessment is that at this scale, there is no way to displace people without creating a humanitarian disaster.” According to this assessment, it would take “months” to establish structures to provide “basic services” to over a million people. Tufro asked the White House to tell Israel to slow down its attack.
In an email, she wrote, “For Israel Government (GOI) to stop people moving south, they need to hit the brakes.” Biden’s public comments on Gaza had granted Netanyahu considerable leeway against Hamas.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, at a press conference in Doha, publicly acknowledged the suffering of Palestinian families in Gaza for the first time.
BIDEN’S REMARKS CHANGED
He said Washington had been in constant talks with Israelis and aid groups to help civilians in Gaza. The next day, on October 14, Biden’s tone changed. In a speech, he urgently prioritized the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and instructed his team to deliver aid to the war zone.
Although Israel began sending troops to Gaza on October 13, a large-scale ground operation did not commence until October 27.
Sources familiar with the matter said that at that time, Washington advised Israel to wait, with the primary reason being to allow diplomacy time for Hamas to release Israeli captives. As US officials assessed the humanitarian crisis, Israel was pressuring Washington for more weapons.
According to information from two American officials on an updated list of weapons shipments, Washington had sent large amounts of munitions to Israel since the start of the conflict in Gaza. These included thousands of precision-guided missiles and 2,000-pound bombs capable of destroying densely populated areas, tunnels, and shelters.
Some rights groups blamed the use of these weapons for civilian deaths. Amnesty International, referring to at least three incidents between October 10 and January 2024 involving weapons supplied by the US, stated that civilians, including women and children were killed with “serious violations” of international humanitarian law.