He said the attack was ordered based on “an Israeli commander’s erroneous interpretation of a drone image,” and that the officer was under investigation.
Israeli officials say they take extensive measures to protect civilians, including by dropping leaflets or making radio and television broadcasts and even phone calls urging residents to leave danger zones ahead of some attacks.
But such actions are not taken when they might cost a needed element of surprise, for instance when targeting a Hamas leader who could quickly flee, according to a senior Israel Defense Forces legal adviser.
Image
A person walks on a street between damaged buildings.
The battle of Mosul, Iraq, was far bloodier than earlier fights in Falluja, costing as many as 8,000 civilian lives to kill perhaps several thousand Islamic State fighters. Credit...Ivor Prickett for The New York Times
In conversations with their Israeli counterparts, U.S. military officials have discussed the lessons learned from the battles in Iraq and in Raqqa, the ISIS headquarters in Syria.
In some instances, the U.S. military enabled many civilians to leave the cities well before the fighting.
Before the Marine offensive in Falluja in November 2004, for instance, many Iraqi civilians went to Baghdad or sought shelter in a concrete factory outside Falluja after being given assurances they could return. The U.S. military destroyed much of the city, but most of the Iraqis killed were insurgents.
“The U.S. made significantly more efforts to avoid civilian casualties in Falluja than what the Israelis are doing now,” said Josh Paul, a recently departed State Department official who worked in Falluja in 2004 and 2005.
For the two million residents of Gaza, there is no escape.
Image
People seen through a window read a list taped on the glass of the names of those allowed to cross the border out of Gaza.
A group checked a list for the names of people allowed to proceed through the Rafah border crossing from Gaza into Egypt on Wednesday.Credit...Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times
And Hamas has been burrowing into Gaza’s infrastructure for more than 15 years.
Israeli commanders thus repeatedly confront the presence of civilians at or near their targets. The Israeli military legal adviser said that in those cases, commanders use personal judgment before ordering a strike, assessing the likely cost in lives and whether the intended target is worth the price.
There is no agreed-upon formula for making such morbid calculations. One benchmark that Israel considers relevant was introduced by a United Nations investigation of civilian deaths during the 1999 NATO bombing campaign over Kosovo, whose aim was to protect ethnic Albanians from attacks by Serbian forces.
The resulting report, which did not find NATO culpable for war crimes, noted that it was “unlikely that a human rights lawyer and an experienced combat commander would assign the same relative values to military advantage and to injury to noncombatants,” or even that different military commanders with different backgrounds would agree.
The report proposed a vague standard: the judgment of “the ‘reasonable military commander.’”
Image
A man wearing a black hat and a black T-shirt rests his head against the body of a child wrapped in a red blanket.
A Palestinian man on Friday mourning the loss of his daughter, who was killed in Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.Credit...Yousef Masoud for The New York Times
U.S. Bombs and the Law of War
The vast scale of Israeli strikes — along with statements from Israeli military officials saying their operational intent is for damage and not precision — has left many doubters worldwide. And Israeli leaders say the goal for the campaign in Gaza is to eradicate Hamas, an open-ended aim that some Biden administration officials privately criticize.
Given those issues and the fact that much of Israel’s arsenal consists of weapons bought from the United States, there are growing calls for U.S. officials to determine whether Israel is using them illegally.
Biden administration officials said earlier this year they would do more to hold governments that buy American weapons accountable for civilian killings. The State Department sent a cable in August to its embassies and consulates announcing a new program in which U.S. officials would investigate such reports.
While Mr. Blinken has said Israel should do all it can to minimize civilian casualties, the department has so far refrained from looking into any possible war crimes by Israel.
On Oct. 20, Mr. Blinken said “there will be plenty of time to make assessments about how these operations were conducted.” Last Wednesday, after the mass deaths in Jabaliya, Matthew Miller, the department spokesman, avoided answering questions on whether a process was underway, saying only, “It is not an assessment that we are making now.”
The State Department declined requests for an interview on this subject.
Image
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has said Israel should do all it can to minimize civilian casualties, but the State Department has so far apparently refrained from looking into any possible war crimes by Israel. Credit...Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
In 2016, the department’s legal office circulated a memo that said U.S. officials could be found guilty of war crimes for selling bombs to Saudi Arabia that were being used in its war in Yemen, in which airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition were resulting in mass civilian casualties.
“The Israeli strikes we’ve seen so far should be raising serious questions for people at the State Department about how U.S. weapons are being used,” said Brian Finucane, a recent State Department lawyer who is a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group.
The Israeli defense ministry said it had dropped at least 10,000 munitions as of Nov. 1, in three and a half weeks of war. By contrast, the U.S. military dropped about 2,000 to 3,000 munitions per month during the most intense combat operations against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria from 2015 to 2017, according to a report by the RAND Corporation. Only in one month, in the battle for Raqqa in August 2017, did that number hit 5,000.
“The pace of bombing in Gaza is off the charts,” Mr. Finucane said. “The U.S. engaged in heavy bombing of Raqqa and Mosul. It was heavily regulated, but even then, there were lots of civilian casualties.”
Image
Rows of damaged buildings extending to the horizon.
Destroyed buildings in northern Gaza, near the border with Israel. The Israeli defense ministry said it had dropped at least 10,000 munitions as of Nov. 1.Credit...Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times
Mr. Paul, the former State Department official, was a longtime employee in the agency’s political-military bureau, which handles weapons sales, until last month, when he resigned because of what he said was immoral U.S. support and lethal aid for Israel’s bombings in Gaza. Mr. Paul said there has been no real discussion within the administration about the use of American weapons in the strikes killing civilians and no way to influence policy on that from the inside.
He added that “in practice and in legal interpretation, there has not been a legal standard established for what constitutes misuse of U.S. weapons.”
Michael Crowley covers the State Department and U.S. foreign policy for The Times. He has reported from nearly three dozen countries and often travels with the secretary of state. More about Michael Crowley
Edward Wong is a diplomatic correspondent who has reported for The Times for more than 24 years from New York, Baghdad, Beijing and Washington. He was on a team of Pulitzer Prize finalists for Iraq War coverage. More about Edward Wong
A version of this article appears in print on Nov. 8, 2023, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Israelis Invoking Toll of U.S. Wars as Moral Shield.
[Continued]
He said the attack was ordered based on “an Israeli commander’s erroneous interpretation of a drone image,” and that the officer was under investigation.
Israeli officials say they take extensive measures to protect civilians, including by dropping leaflets or making radio and television broadcasts and even phone calls urging residents to leave danger zones ahead of some attacks.
But such actions are not taken when they might cost a needed element of surprise, for instance when targeting a Hamas leader who could quickly flee, according to a senior Israel Defense Forces legal adviser.
Image A person walks on a street between damaged buildings. The battle of Mosul, Iraq, was far bloodier than earlier fights in Falluja, costing as many as 8,000 civilian lives to kill perhaps several thousand Islamic State fighters. Credit...Ivor Prickett for The New York Times In conversations with their Israeli counterparts, U.S. military officials have discussed the lessons learned from the battles in Iraq and in Raqqa, the ISIS headquarters in Syria.
In some instances, the U.S. military enabled many civilians to leave the cities well before the fighting.
Before the Marine offensive in Falluja in November 2004, for instance, many Iraqi civilians went to Baghdad or sought shelter in a concrete factory outside Falluja after being given assurances they could return. The U.S. military destroyed much of the city, but most of the Iraqis killed were insurgents.
“The U.S. made significantly more efforts to avoid civilian casualties in Falluja than what the Israelis are doing now,” said Josh Paul, a recently departed State Department official who worked in Falluja in 2004 and 2005.
For the two million residents of Gaza, there is no escape.
Image People seen through a window read a list taped on the glass of the names of those allowed to cross the border out of Gaza. A group checked a list for the names of people allowed to proceed through the Rafah border crossing from Gaza into Egypt on Wednesday.Credit...Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times And Hamas has been burrowing into Gaza’s infrastructure for more than 15 years.
Israeli commanders thus repeatedly confront the presence of civilians at or near their targets. The Israeli military legal adviser said that in those cases, commanders use personal judgment before ordering a strike, assessing the likely cost in lives and whether the intended target is worth the price.
There is no agreed-upon formula for making such morbid calculations. One benchmark that Israel considers relevant was introduced by a United Nations investigation of civilian deaths during the 1999 NATO bombing campaign over Kosovo, whose aim was to protect ethnic Albanians from attacks by Serbian forces.
The resulting report, which did not find NATO culpable for war crimes, noted that it was “unlikely that a human rights lawyer and an experienced combat commander would assign the same relative values to military advantage and to injury to noncombatants,” or even that different military commanders with different backgrounds would agree.
The report proposed a vague standard: the judgment of “the ‘reasonable military commander.’”
Image A man wearing a black hat and a black T-shirt rests his head against the body of a child wrapped in a red blanket. A Palestinian man on Friday mourning the loss of his daughter, who was killed in Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.Credit...Yousef Masoud for The New York Times U.S. Bombs and the Law of War The vast scale of Israeli strikes — along with statements from Israeli military officials saying their operational intent is for damage and not precision — has left many doubters worldwide. And Israeli leaders say the goal for the campaign in Gaza is to eradicate Hamas, an open-ended aim that some Biden administration officials privately criticize.
Given those issues and the fact that much of Israel’s arsenal consists of weapons bought from the United States, there are growing calls for U.S. officials to determine whether Israel is using them illegally.
Biden administration officials said earlier this year they would do more to hold governments that buy American weapons accountable for civilian killings. The State Department sent a cable in August to its embassies and consulates announcing a new program in which U.S. officials would investigate such reports.
While Mr. Blinken has said Israel should do all it can to minimize civilian casualties, the department has so far refrained from looking into any possible war crimes by Israel.
On Oct. 20, Mr. Blinken said “there will be plenty of time to make assessments about how these operations were conducted.” Last Wednesday, after the mass deaths in Jabaliya, Matthew Miller, the department spokesman, avoided answering questions on whether a process was underway, saying only, “It is not an assessment that we are making now.”
The State Department declined requests for an interview on this subject.
Image Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has said Israel should do all it can to minimize civilian casualties, but the State Department has so far apparently refrained from looking into any possible war crimes by Israel. Credit...Jonathan Ernst/Reuters In 2016, the department’s legal office circulated a memo that said U.S. officials could be found guilty of war crimes for selling bombs to Saudi Arabia that were being used in its war in Yemen, in which airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition were resulting in mass civilian casualties.
“The Israeli strikes we’ve seen so far should be raising serious questions for people at the State Department about how U.S. weapons are being used,” said Brian Finucane, a recent State Department lawyer who is a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group.
The Israeli defense ministry said it had dropped at least 10,000 munitions as of Nov. 1, in three and a half weeks of war. By contrast, the U.S. military dropped about 2,000 to 3,000 munitions per month during the most intense combat operations against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria from 2015 to 2017, according to a report by the RAND Corporation. Only in one month, in the battle for Raqqa in August 2017, did that number hit 5,000.
“The pace of bombing in Gaza is off the charts,” Mr. Finucane said. “The U.S. engaged in heavy bombing of Raqqa and Mosul. It was heavily regulated, but even then, there were lots of civilian casualties.”
Image Rows of damaged buildings extending to the horizon. Destroyed buildings in northern Gaza, near the border with Israel. The Israeli defense ministry said it had dropped at least 10,000 munitions as of Nov. 1.Credit...Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times
Mr. Paul, the former State Department official, was a longtime employee in the agency’s political-military bureau, which handles weapons sales, until last month, when he resigned because of what he said was immoral U.S. support and lethal aid for Israel’s bombings in Gaza. Mr. Paul said there has been no real discussion within the administration about the use of American weapons in the strikes killing civilians and no way to influence policy on that from the inside.
He added that “in practice and in legal interpretation, there has not been a legal standard established for what constitutes misuse of U.S. weapons.”
Michael Crowley covers the State Department and U.S. foreign policy for The Times. He has reported from nearly three dozen countries and often travels with the secretary of state. More about Michael Crowley
Edward Wong is a diplomatic correspondent who has reported for The Times for more than 24 years from New York, Baghdad, Beijing and Washington. He was on a team of Pulitzer Prize finalists for Iraq War coverage. More about Edward Wong
A version of this article appears in print on Nov. 8, 2023, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Israelis Invoking Toll of U.S. Wars as Moral Shield.