Several Democratic senators are urging Secretary of State Marco Rubio to quickly investigate what a classified government watchdog report has described as “hundreds” of potential human rights violations allegedly committed by the Israeli military in Gaza.
Senators Chris Van Hollen (Maryland) and Jack Reed (Rhode Island) organized the petition to Rubio, warning in a letter to the State Department on Tuesday that delays in scrutinizing incidents of killing, torture and abuse in Gaza undermine laws barring U.S. security assistance for foreign military units credibly accused of such wrongdoing. Nine other senators, all Democrats, also signed on to the effort.
“Without effective enforcement mechanisms, these laws and policies become meaningless,” the senators wrote.
The classified report they cite was produced by the State Department’s Office of Inspector General, which found that the backlog of incidents related to Israeli military units could take the State Department years to fully examine. Those conclusions were first reported by The Washington Post last month.
“Given these findings, we urge you to quickly implement the OIG’s recommendations and adjudicate these cases in a timely manner in order to ensure compliance with U.S. law,” the senators wrote.
When asked about the letter, a State Department official said that “the department is aware of and complies with its legal obligations.” The Israel Defense Forces did not respond to a request for comment.
While President Donald Trump and his top envoy Steve Witkoff have acknowledged widespread civilian casualties and carnage in Gaza, the State Department has yet to declare any Israeli unit ineligible for U.S. assistance under the Leahy Laws, which prohibit funding for foreign military units credibly accused of rights violations.
High-profile incidents in Gaza still pending a U.S. determination include the killing of seven World Central Kitchen workers in April 2024 and the killing of more than 100 Palestinians and wounding of 760 others gathered around aid trucks near Gaza City in February 2024, according to figures tallied by local health authorities there.
Nearly 70,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack on southern Israel. The Hamas attack killed about 1,200 in Israel.
The classified report explains the protocol for reviewing suspected human rights violations by foreign militaries and notes that the process advantages Israel over other countries facing similar allegations.
The senators said this bespoke process “requires more burdensome consultation that allows the review to drag on, perhaps indefinitely.” They asked Rubio if he needs more “resources” to vet the backlog of incidents.
Charles Blaha, a former State Department official in charge of the office that implements the Leahy Laws, said a lack of sufficient resources is not preventing accountability. “What is lacking is the political will to stand up to Israel and find units ineligible,” he said. Trump’s predecessor as president, Joe Biden, was in office when the Gaza war began in October 2023 and faced similar accusations from human rights advocates and critics within his own Democratic Party.
While Tuesday’s letter is led by Democrats, the White House has also come under pressure from American conservatives to rethink Washington’s relationship with Israel. Former Trump aide Stephen K. Bannon and podcast host Tucker Carlson have decried the $3.8 billion the U.S. provides to Israel every year and have questioned how U.S. support for Israeli military operations in the West Bank and Gaza benefit U.S. interests.
“It’s great to criticize and question our relationship with Israel because it’s insane and it hurts us. We get nothing out of it,” Carlson said recently.
A number of polling organizations, including the Pew Research Center, have found that conservatives under the age of 50 are increasingly skeptical of Israel. That cohort’s negative views of Israel rose from 35 percent to 50 percent over the past three years.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the U.S.-Israel relationship is about “common values.”
“We have a partnership, an alliance of partners, who share common values and common goals,” he said following a recent meeting with Vice President JD Vance. “We can have discussions, we can have disagreements here and there, but on the whole I have to say that in the past year we’ve had agreement — agreement not only on goals but how to reach them.”
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