Senate progressives demand Biden reduce Gaza civilian deaths caused by US weapons 

A group of progressive Senate Democrats led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) are pressing President Biden and his administration to step up oversight of the use of U.S. military weapons by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Gaza to reduce the civilian death toll.  

In a letter to President Biden Tuesday, the senators raised alarm over Israeli forces firing 155mm artillery shells, which are unguided explosive weapons that have a kill radius of between 100 and 300 meters, close to densely populated civilian areas.  

“The IDF has previously used these shells to ‘hit populated areas including neighborhoods, hospitals, schools, shelters and safe zones,’ causing a staggering number of civilian deaths,” they wrote, noting that more than 30 U.S.-based civil society groups warned Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin against providing those shells to Israel.  

They circulated the letter ahead of a key procedural Senate vote Wednesday to begin debate on a $110 billion emergency foreign aid package that includes $14 billion in aid to Israel.

Israel launched an offensive against Hamas in Gaza after the U.S.-designated terrorist group launched at attack on Oct. 7 that killed about 1,200 people. The civilian death toll in Gaza is estimated at around 15,000, according to the health ministry there.

One of the letter’s signatories, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), has already said he will oppose more military aid to Israel without conditions to limit civilian casualties.  

Senate Republicans say they will block the bill because it does not include immigration and asylum policy reforms to reduce the flow of migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border.  

The Democratic senators who signed the letter to Biden cited press reports that the Defense Department only sent one Marine Corps general to advise Israel on how to mitigate civilian casualties and that U.S. military officials have yet to define safeguards or say how Israel should use U.S. weapons.  

“Civilian harm prevention is a cornerstone of American foreign policy, and U.S. policy and international law requires that American weapons transferred to foreign governments, including Israel, are used in a manner consistent with protecting civilian lives,” they wrote.  

They expressed “concerns” over what they called “insufficient transparency around weapons transfers to Israel” because Israel is allowed to use Foreign Military Financing from the United States to buy U.S. weapons directly from domestic arms manufactures, which only requires classified notifications of those sales to a few members of the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs Committees.  

They pointed out that United Nations Secretary General António Guterres has called the strikes on civilian areas “clear violations of international humanitarian law.”  

The senators note that Biden’s request for military aid to Israel asks Congress to waive notification requirements.  

They say this would further limit congressional oversight and harm “our ability to monitor and determine whether U.S. assistance is contributing to disproportionate civilian harm.”  

They argue that lawmakers are in the dark about what role U.S. weapons have played in killing Palestinian civilians because Israeli forces have restricted independent human rights groups and media organizations from visiting Gaza. 

“Your administration must ensure that existing guidance and standards are being used to evaluate the reports of Israel using U.S. weapons in attacks that harm civilians in order to more rigorously protect civilian safety during Israel’s operations in Gaza,” the senators wrote.  

Warren and her colleagues concluded their letter with more than a dozen questions about what steps the Pentagon has taken to reduce civilian casualties. 

They want to know if U.S. officials are aware of the Israel Defense Force’s policy on preventing civilian harm, what insights the U.S. government has about how Israel assesses the proportionality of civilian deaths and whether the Israel has a system for reporting allegations of civilian harm.  

They asked what systems Israel has in place to investigate allegations of civilian harm and what training the U.S. has provided to Israeli troops to prevent civilian deaths.