Internal Emails Reveal Early US Concerns Over Gaza Offensive

Recent leaked email exchanges indicate the highest officials in the US voiced early warnings on Israel’s military operation in Gaza after the October 7 attack by Hamas. These messages, dated between October 11-14, 2023, suggest the turmoil within the Biden administration between support for Israel and their growing humanitarian concerns inside Gaza.

On October 13, Pentagon official Dana Stroul warned the White House that Israel was on the verge of expelling more than a million Palestinians in a move that could be a breach of international law. In an email to Biden’s senior aides, Stroul shared a Red Cross assessment that “chilled her to the bone,” casting the shadow of potential war crimes across Israel. With the evacuation order, Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets over northern Gaza, giving its residents 24 hours to leave.

White House officials-Brett McGurk, among them-said they had initially opposed calls for a ceasefire but realised they had to back the humanitarian corridors. Paula Tufro, a high-ranking White House official, said that this is a massive displacement which would automatically create a “humanitarian catastrophe” and appealed to Israel to “pump the brakes” on pushing people south, suggesting it would be many months before basic services could be in place for the displaced population.

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Rights groups, including Amnesty International, link the Gaza civilian deaths to US-provided weapons. In May, a State Department report suggested that the Israelis might have made unlawful use of US weaponry in a manner that violated the law of nations, though it declined to say so definitively because the conflict was so disorganized. Israel claims it complies thoroughly with international law, and an embassy spokesman said the democratic principles guide Israel’s activities.

Regional Tensions and the Actual Crisis

As the conflict approaches its first anniversary, the number of dead in Gaza has topped 40,000, and protests by Arab-Americans and Muslim activists have erupted from California to New York. Ceasefire negotiations remain fruitless, nearly three months after Washington brought both sides together for talks. The toll is not only measured in mangled bodies or buildings but also in the shattered infrastructure of most of Gaza, and it fuels apprehensions of a wider regional war, especially after Israel’s military foray into Lebanon and killing of a Hezbollah leader.