The Biden administration

is confronted with faces

Criticism is mounting that support for Israel ignores massive numbers of civilian casualties, a potential war crime, while also facing ripples of dissent within its own government ranks.

After days of targeted complaints from

the

King

Abdullah II

of Jordan, the United Nations and international humanitarian organizations, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken on Tuesday made his deepest plea yet for the safety of Palestinian civilians living under steady Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip.

Every civilian life is equally valuable,” Blinken told the UN Security Council. “We know that Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people, and that Palestinian citizens are not responsible for the carnage that Hamas has caused. Palestinian civilians must be protected.”

That includes stopping Hamas from using civilians as human shields and encouraging Israel to prevent harm to civilians while allowing the flow of food, water and medicine into Gaza, Blinken said. He called for a series of “humanitarian pauses” to ease the situation in Gaza

humanitarian

crisis, something the US had vetoed

in a UN resolution

just last week.

This is evident from figures from the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza

the UN

M

than 5,000 Palestinians

,

almost half of it

Women and

children

,

have been killed in Gaza by Israeli attacks in retaliation for

the Oct. 7a huge and brutal

Attack by Hamas militants on Israelis in southern Israel

on Oct. 7

which killed more than 1,400 people. More than 200 people were also kidnapped, including several American citizens.

The Palestinian death toll was announced by the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza and by the UN, the UN

At least 30 members of the Gaza-based staff were among the dead.

Israel said on Tuesday it carried out 400 airstrikes on Gaza last night.

Al v V

in the residential areas of Gaza City, where over a million people live and where Israel holds out

That

Hamas is operating, has been razed to the ground. According to reports from Gaza, many of the latest airstrikes have targeted southern parts of the coastal enclave.

the very

areas

where that

Israel told Gaza residents to seek refuge

in

to stay safe.

President Biden and his administration were so shocked by Hamas

murdermurder

and kidnappings that their “unwavering” support for Israel left little room for concern for Palestinian civilians, who quickly became victims of Israeli retaliation

in

a bombing campaign against the densely populated population

edition

streak of intensity you haven’t seen in years, or even ever.

Gradually, however, Biden and others

slightly

their rhetoric changed

a little, and

urged Israel to respect the rules of war

,And

emphatically

sung

Concerns about civilian casualties and the arrival of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip after Israel cut off water, food, electricity and medicine. Denying basic goods to a defeated population such as the Palestinians in Gaza can also be considered a violation of international humanitarian law.

At an emergency Middle East summit in Cairo last weekend, Jordan and Egypt, until recently the only Arab countries to recognize Israel, showed anger and impatience toward their neighbor. They firmly rejected Israeli attempts to push Palestinians from Gaza into their lands.

what amount,

they said

what amount

to ethnic cleansing.

King Abdullah II

of Jordan

one of Washington’s closest allies, said the siege, bombing and forced displacement constituted “a war crime” and “a red line for all of us.”

“Anywhere, attacking civilian infrastructure and deliberately starving an entire population of food, water and electricity

,

and basic needs would be condemned,”

said

Abdullah, speaking

perfect

English to reach its intended audience

said

. “Accountability would be enforced immediately and unequivocally. … But not in Gaza.”

Abdullah continued: “The message the Arab world is hearing is loud and clear: Palestinian lives are less important than those of Israel. Our lives are less important than other lives. The application of international law is optional. And human rights have limits that stop at the borders. they stop at races, and they stop at religions.”

The

UN

S

secretary

G

general

,

Antonio Guterres, who

hosted was hosting

Tuesday’s meeting, where Blinken spoke, also criticized the U.S. handling of the Israel-Hamas crisis and ultimately enraged Israel.

Hamas’ “terrible acts” did not justify the “collective punishment” of more than two million Palestinians

Hi

said.

“Protecting civilians does not mean ordering more than 1 million people to evacuate to the south, where there is no shelter, no food, no water, no medicine and no fuel, and then continuing the bombing of the south itself,” Guterres said.

“It is also important to recognize that Hamas’ attacks did not take place in a vacuum,” he said, recounting the 56 years of “suffocating occupation” in which Palestinians have seen “their land steadily developed by settlements and plagued was by force; suppresses their economy; their people displaced and their homes demolished.”

Israel immediately demanded

That

Guterres resigns. In Washington, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby also responded to the attempt to put the conflict into context.

“Hamas is to blame. Hamas is to blame,” he told reporters.

The international humanitarian law that governs the conduct of armed conflicts is far more complex than most casual observers realize. The provision

For example,

of a war crime,

that is for example

Technically, a ‘serious violation’ of the rules of conduct may depend on many factors, including the status of the participants in the conflict. However, in general, the ‘reckless’ or ‘negligent’ killing of civilians is considered a serious violation of international law.

When asked whether the State Department has been able to repeatedly assess Israel’s compliance with the laws of war, spokesman Matthew Miller responded.

correctly answered, correctly,

that such a decision should be made by lawyers and a tribunal, such as the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Biden, Blinken and other U.S. officials have pushed for it

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin

Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders must respect humanitarian law, Miller said.

U.S. officials say Israel has always insisted it is targeting military targets with its crushing bombardment, even as deaths among non-combatants have soared.

BidenUS administration

civil servants

have generally been

prepared to take at face value Israel’s claims that military targets exist at all

nominal

civil

areas locations such as such

residential apartment buildings and hospitals.

“You have to remember the context in which Israel is carrying out these attacks, and that is against an adversary, a terrorist organization, that has embedded its infrastructure in civilian buildings, in schools, in hospitals, under schools, under hospitals, in residential areas. apartment buildings,” Miller said. “Israel has a legitimate right to fulfill military obligations directed against a foreign terrorist organization. It must do so in a way that minimizes harm to the civilian population as much as possible. That is what we made clear to them.”

In addition to inciting Arab allies, the administration’s undisguised support for Israel sparked a wave of discontent within the State Department among some officials who said failure to recognize the plight of Palestinians could erode support for Israel and could call into question the credibility of the US.

Josh Paul, a decade-long employee of the state agency that oversees political-military affairs including arms sales, has publicly resigned and said Israel’s heavy-handed response to what he did

named

The Hamas monster

you

These attacks, and US support for that response, would only lead to more suffering for Palestinians and Israelis.

Other rumblings of discontent

have been reported

especially among younger officers within Foggy Bottom who are more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause

have been reported

. Senior State Department officials said dissent within an agency that employs more than 70,000 people is not unusual and even welcome.

Still, Blinken wrote a rare pep talk for “the team” as he returned last week from a whirlwind crisis diplomacy mission in Israel and six Arab countries.

“As we go through this challenging period, please: pay extra care and attention to each other. Let us demonstrate the humanity, empathy, and grace within our own communities that we seek to build in the world,” Blinken said in the note. distributed to employees.

“And let us also be sure that we preserve and expand the space for debate and dissent that makes our policies and institutions better.

“We have a difficult period ahead of us,” he said. ‘The risk of greater unrest and strife is real. And yet the question of where this crisis comes from is not inevitable. It will depend in large part on how America and each of us leads during this critical period. “