Report Absolving Israel Over Aid Is False, US Official Says After Quitting

A state department report earlier this month absolving Israel of responsibility for blocking humanitarian aid flows into Gaza was "patently false" and went against the consensus of department's experts, according to a former senior US official who resigned this week.

- Julian Borger

Stacy Gilbert left her post as senior civil military adviser in the state department's bureau of population, refugees and migration, on Tuesday.

She had been one of the department's subject matter experts who drafted the report mandated under national security memorandum 20 (NSM-20) and published on 10 May.

The NSM-20 report found that it was "reasonable to assess" that Israel had used US weapons in a way that was "inconsistent" with international humanitarian law, but that there was not enough concrete evidence to link specific US-supplied weapons to violations.

Even more controversially, the report said the state department did not "currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of US humanitarian assistance" in Gaza.

It was a high-stakes judgment because under a clause in the Foreign Assistance Act, the US would be obliged to cut arms sales and security assistance to any country found to have blocked delivery of US aid.

Gilbert, a 20-year veteran of the state department who has worked in several war zones, said that report's conclusion went against the overwhelming view of state department experts consulted on the report.