The US on Thursday rejected a 296-page report from Amnesty International that concluded Israel is conducting genocide in Gaza.
“We disagree with the conclusions of such a report. We have said previously and continue to find that the allegations of genocide are unfounded,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.
US officials have repeatedly denied the idea that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza since it would implicate them due to the massive amount of military aid that the US has provided Israel over the past year.
Amnesty is calling for the US and other countries that supply arms to Israel to end the weapons shipments to avoid being complicit in genocide. “States that continue to transfer arms to Israel at this time must know they are violating their obligation to prevent genocide and are at risk of becoming complicit in genocide,” said Agnès Callamard, the secretary general of Amnesty.
“All states with influence over Israel, particularly key arms suppliers like the USA and Germany, but also other EU member states, the UK and others, must act now to bring Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza to an immediate end,” she added.
The US is by far Israel’s biggest arms supplier as a report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) found that from 2019-2023, the US provided Israel with 69% of its weapons, and Germany accounted for 30%.
The US State Department has also denied there’s evidence that Israel is committing war crimes with US weapons to ensure the arms continue to flow. Amnesty investigated 15 Israeli airstrikes in Gaza that took place between October 7, 2023 and April 20, 2024. In those strikes, Amnesty found no evidence there were any military targets and said at least 334 civilians, including 141 children, were killed.
Patel was asked about the 15 airstrikes examined by Amnesty and deferred to the Israeli military. “I will defer to the IDF to speak to its specific military operations,” he said.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry also responded to the report on Thursday, claiming it was “a fabricated report that is entirely false and based on lies” and called Amnesty a “deplorable and fanatical organization.”
In Gaza, Palestinians said the conclusion from Amnesty came to late. “It is the 430th day of the war today, and Israel has been carrying out massacres and a genocide from the first 10 days of the war,” Abu Anas Mustafa, a resident of Gaza, told Reuters while attending a funeral in Khan Younis.