Fighting between Israel and Hamas has slowed since a January ceasefire, but the deal is on shaky ground given recent terror attacks inside of Israel and a provocative Hamas handover of the remains of Israeli hostages, which the latter said contained the wrongfully attributed remains of a missing Israeli mother.
The memo, which largely reiterated previous policies and statutory requirements on U.S. arms transfers, required the secretary of State to get “credible and reliable” assurances from U.S. partners that arms would be used in accordance with international law, and threatened those who didn’t comply with being cut off from further support.
Throughout his time in office, President Biden largely supported the Israeli military effort, despite occasionally voicing concerns over a civilian death toll that’s included an estimated 46,000 Palestinians and over 1,100 Israelis.
Biden policy required assurances U.S. allies using American weapons would follow humanitarian law and support U.S. aid shipments.
Trump has suggested the U.S. could occupy Gaza and temporarily remove hundreds of thousands of people from the territory in a move critics have deemed ethnic cleansing.
