Deputy State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said Tuesday that the Biden administration would continue to press Israel to “carefully review its policies and practices regarding the IDF’s rules of engagement” in the occupied West Bank.
He said this was necessary to “mitigate the risk of civilian harm, protect journalists and prevent similar tragedies”.
Between the lines: US pressure on Israel to revise the guidelines, which define the circumstances under which Israeli soldiers can use live fire in the West Bank, is unusual. Patel’s comments were the first time the Biden administration raised the issue publicly after discussing it privately in recent weeks.
After meeting with Abu Akleh’s family in late July, Foreign Secretary Tony Blinken called Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz and called for a review of the IDF’s rules of engagement in the West Bank, saying it would be a step toward accountability in the case Abu Akleh. . Blinken told Gantz he believes the rules of engagement were either not followed or should be reviewed if an Israeli soldier shot Abu Akleh while wearing a bulletproof vest marked “press.”
State of the game: Patel’s comments on Tuesday came a day after Israel released the final conclusions of its investigation into the death of Abu Akleh, who was killed while covering an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.
The investigation found that Abu Akleh was likely killed by “inadvertent gunfire” from an Israeli soldier who did not realize she was a journalist, a senior IDF official told reporters. The senior IDF official said the investigation found there was no violation of the rules of engagement and no problem with the briefing the soldiers received before the Jenin raid.
What they’re saying: Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid expressed “sorrow” over Abu Akleh’s death on Wednesday, but said “no one will dictate our rules of engagement when we are the ones fighting for our lives.”
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said that “the chief of the general staff of the IDF, and he alone, determines and will continue to determine the rules of engagement according to our operational needs and IDF values.”
“These instructions are being strictly implemented by the soldiers and their commanders. There has been and will be no political interference in the matter,” Gantz said.
Another senior Israeli official told Axios that “the rules of engagement were reviewed as part of the IDF investigation and it was found that there were no violations. No one is going to change the rules of engagement because of US political pressure.”
Israeli officials believe the US call for a review of the rules of engagement is an attempt to respond to pressure from US progressives who have called for an independent US investigation – something the Biden administration is unable and unwilling to do, the Israeli official said. The State Department did not respond to a request for comment. “The Biden administration isn’t really pushing us because they understand we’re not going to change the rules of engagement,” the official added. “We told them our position before and after their public statement on this matter.”
