Israel Continues to Kill Palestinians in Gaza Despite Ceasefire | Palestine Policy Roundup 11.03.25
Welcome to the Palestine Policy Roundup, a weekly publication of the IMEU Policy Project.
👀 ICYMI: MEMBERS OF CONGRESS SPEAK OUT
Rep. Delia Ramirez: “If we are truly committed to a long-lasting ceasefire [in Gaza], the U.S. must assert oversight of weapons of war. We must pass my Block the Bombs Act.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib: “No matter what Trump says, there's never been a "ceasefire" because War Criminal Netanyahu and the Israeli government never stopped killing Palestinians. Total arms embargo. Sanctions. End the genocide now.”
Rep. Ilhan Omar: “This is clearly not a ceasefire. In order to secure a permanent ceasefire, we need a total arms embargo to stop Israel’s genocidal apartheid regime.”
DC DEVELOPMENTS
🔍 CLASSIFIED REPORT REVEALS WIDESPREAD POTENTIAL HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN GAZA BY ISRAELI MILITARY
A report by the State Department Office of the Inspector General revealed that the department has been notified of hundreds of potential human rights abuses committed by Israeli military units during the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. These incidents reportedly include the killing of World Central Kitchen humanitarian workers and the flour massacre, which killed more than 100 Palestinians who were seeking food near Gaza City in February 2024.
As reported in The Washington Post, these abuses may have violated the Leahy Law, and the report notes that the sheer volume of incidents and deferential treatment for Israel in the review process casts doubt on the prospects for accountability under the law.
Israel’s exceptionalized treatment under the Leahy Law has been well documented. Charles Blaha, a former State Department official who was charged with overseeing the implementation of the Leahy Law worldwide, outlined how the State Department slows down the process for reviewing gross violations of human rights committed by Israeli military units.
If those incidents are reviewed at all, they are then subject to a higher standard of evidence than is generally necessary for units of other nations that receive weapons from the US. Since the Leahy Law was passed, it has never been enforced against Israeli military units, even those credibly accused of committing gross violations of human rights.
The report also notes that the amount of incidents that have been identified would take years to review–highlighting an important flaw of the Leahy Law and demonstrating the need for comprehensive efforts at accountability for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The volume of incidents speaks to a systemic nature of Israel’s genocidal violence against Palestinians in Gaza that has been enabled by the billions of dollars in weapons provided by the US.
These widespread human rights abuses likely violate other US laws governing weapons transfers, such as the Arms Export Control Act. Members of Congress should exercise their oversight authority and immediately end weapons to Israel in response to this report and Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
Additionally, this report also makes clear the need for a comprehensive response to Israel’s assault on Palestinians in Gaza. Another avenue to hold Israel accountable for these human rights abuses is the Block the Bombs Act, which would block the delivery of certain weapons that have been central to Israel’s genocide.
As a party to the Genocide Convention, the US also has an obligation to prevent and punish the crime of genocide. The likely systemic nature of these human rights abuses is a central component to the determinations by dozens of individuals, NGOs, and other entities that have correctly identified Israel’s assault as a genocide. Members of Congress must act to prevent further genocidal crimes by blocking weapons to Israel and punishing Israel for committing its genocide.
📖 LEARN MORE Check out IMEU Policy Project’s policy memo on the need for the Block the Bombs Act.
📣 TAKE ACTION: Write to your Representative and urge them to sign on to the Block the Bombs Act, or thank them for signing on!
📖 LEARN MORE: Check out IMEU Policy Project’s policy memo on US obligations to prevent and punish Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
IN THE NEWS
⚖️ REPORT: US WATERED DOWN ASSESSMENT OF ISRAEL’S KILLING OF JOURNALIST SHIREEN ABU AKLEH
For the first time in a public interview, Colonel Steve Gabavics accused the Biden administration of softening its assessment of the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist who was killed by the Israeli military in 2022. Col. Gabavics was an official at the Office of the United States Security Coordinator, which reviewed the shooting and helped draft the State Department’s initial statement on the killing of Shireen.
In an interview with The New York Times, Col. Gabavics and other officials concluded that the Israeli soldier responsible for killing Shireen likely deliberately fired at her and her team based on evidence such as the precision of the shots fired at her and Israeli military radio chatter that indicated that the military knew journalists were operating in the area. This contradicts the State Department’s assessment of the killing–that Shireen was not intentionally killed–and corroborates independent reporting that casts doubt on that narrative.
Interviews with other officials on the same investigative team revealed that the official US government finding on the killing did not reflect the team’s internal discussions over whether the killing was intentional. Col. Gabavics accused his superior, Lieutenant General Michael R. Fenzel, of sidelining him from the review and threatening him with dismissal over his assessment that the Israeli military intentionally killed Shireen.
Fenzel also reportedly showed favoritism to Israel, possibly motivated by a desire to preserve his office’s working relationship with the Israeli military. This may have been exacerbated by the Biden administration's initial refusal to conduct a US-led investigation into the killing of Shireen because the office that Fenzel and Gabavics worked for is not an investigative agency.
In response to this report, the Committee to Protect Journalists renewed its call for a transparent and independent investigation into the killing of Shireen. While the FBI launched an investigation into her killing in 2022, it has not provided any updates.
Since Shireen was killed by the Israeli military, several more US citizens–including Ayşenur Eygi, Sayfollah Musallet, Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, and more–have been killed by Israeli violence in the West Bank. Neither the Biden nor Trump administrations have taken any steps to securing accountability for the killings of these US citizens.
PALESTINE/ISRAEL DEVELOPMENTS
🚨 ISRAEL KILLS MORE THAN 100 PALESTINIANS IN ONE DAY, HAS NOT STOPPED VIOLATING CEASEFIRE
Israel has continued to kill Palestinians in Gaza despite the ceasefire, including more than 100 last Tuesday night. Israel’s strikes were a clear continuation of its genocidal violence in Gaza, using warplanes to once again bomb the schools and the tents where displaced Palestinians were sheltering and killing other Palestinians while they are in their homes.
Israel’s continuation of its genocidal violence is happening with the full support of the Trump administration; last week, Vice President JD Vance downplayed Israel’s killing of Palestinians and President Trump offered his full-throated support for Israel’s continued assault on Gaza.
This was not the only time in the last week that Israel continued its violence against Palestinians–last Friday, the Israeli military bombed a home near Khan Younis while Israeli soldiers shot and killed more Palestinians in a neighborhood near Gaza City.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, more than 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since the beginning of the ceasefire. With the support of the Trump administration, Israel is very clearly exploiting the loopholes and ambiguity of the Trump plan to continue its genocidal violence in Gaza and violate the ceasefire. Israel has killed Palestinians nearly every day, including many who were attempting to return to their homes near the Israeli deployment line.
This line is still largely unmarked across significant stretches of the area, and markers have been placed hundreds of meters deeper into Gaza than where they are expected to be according to the ceasefire agreement.
The Israeli military has a “free fire” policy on any Palestinian that approaches the line, and those that do so report being shot at even as they approach it. Israel is also reportedly building fortifications and infrastructure along the deployment line, casting doubt on the seriousness of its commitment to later phases of the Trump plan.
🔑 KEY TAKEAWAY: Ayman Abu Mandeel described his experience of trying to return to his home beyond the Israeli deployment line to The Guardian: ”The Israeli army has set up cranes, watchtowers and tanks there. They monitor every movement and open fire on anyone who gets close. We haven’t seen the yellow markings ourselves, because anyone who tries to reach those areas is immediately targeted. The quadcopters don’t hesitate to shoot at anyone who moves toward them, as if getting close to our own land has become a crime.”
Meanwhile, Israel continues to restrict the entry of humanitarian aid in direct violation of the ceasefire. According to the Gaza Government Media Office, just one quarter of the 600 trucks that Israel agreed to allow into Gaza every day have entered Gaza.
Photo: dom zara, via Shutterstock. Stock Photo ID: 1063619879