Editor’s note: This story has been updated to more accurately describe what is covered by the amount of aid in the bill.
President Joe Biden signed legislation Wednesday for $26 billion in additional wartime assistance to Israel, humanitarian aid, and U.S. operations in the region. It comes more than six months after a Hamas terrorist attack in Israel killed more than 1,200 people and triggered an Israeli response that has killed more than 34,000 people in Gaza.
Israel’s foreign minister thanked lawmakers for passing the security aid bill, calling the package “a clear testament to the strength of our alliance” and saying it “sends a strong message to all our enemies.”
The aid, passed over the opposition of some Democratic Party lawmakers, comes during an internal review by the administration on whether U.S. partners who were provided with American weapons have complied with international and U.S. laws.
The review was mandated by the president in February in what was known as National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM 20). It directs the departments of State and Defense to ensure that all recipients of aid meet U.S. legal requirements. This includes a mandate the U.S. cut off assistance to foreign military or law enforcement units if it finds there is credible evidence of human rights violations.
Israel provided its assurances of NSM-20 compliance in March. The State Department has until May 8 to report to Congress whether it finds Israel's assurances credible.
Ahead of that deadline, a group made up of critics of Israel’s conduct on Wednesday called for suspending the arms transfers, accusing the Israel Defense Forces of a “systematic pattern of war crimes.”
In a report released Wednesday, the Independent Task Force on the Application of National Security Memorandum-20 (NSM-20) casts doubts on the assurances of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government that Israel is using American weapons in full compliance with U.S. and international law.
Israel’s military insists that its operation in Gaza complies with international law, and that Hamas often conceals militants among civilians.
Determining whether countries use American weapons lawfully can be “quite tricky,” said Sarah Harrison, senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, a U.S.-based liberal think tank.
She told VOA the administration should be “very critical” of Israeli actions in the war.
Restrictions on IDF
The U.S. State Department is also set to release the results of an investigation into whether it should restrict assistance to Israeli military units accused of human rights violations in the West Bank that were said to have mostly occurred before the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.
If the U.S. announces restrictions, it would be the first time it has prohibited assistance to the Israeli military.
Prime Minister Netanyahu wrote in a social media post that such restrictions would be the “height of absurdity and a moral low,” at a time when Israeli troops are battling Hamas.
Restricting U.S. aid would be “symbolically important,” Harrison said, but that there would be no impact on the battlefield. Israel could purchase American weapons using its own funds and provide them to those units, she added.
VOA's Anita Powell contributed to this report.
