In May, the State Department publish a report saying it is “reasonable to assess” that Israel may have used American weapons in violation of international law. But they also said they could not definitively link the American military to specific issues.
“It's hard to get that information in an active combat zone,” Miller said. “But I'd also say we didn't work very hard to try to get the information.”
US law prohibits military aid from being sent to countries that block American deliveries helpas food and medicine. Experts who monitor aid, including several international organizations and the State Department itself, have found that Israel has consistently blocked aid. to the people of Gaza.
Brett McGurk, the White House's Middle East coordinator and one of President Biden's closest advisers, declined a 60 Minutes request for an interview. But a senior White House official told 60 Minutes that government lawyers have not concluded that Israel violated the laws of armed conflict, so American weapons have continued to flow.
The official said that Hamas could end the war by returning the 95 people believed to be still in Gaza. Miller sees the war ending when Israel says it is over.
“Without intervention from the United States or for someone else to coerce or force a decision, it will end when Netanyahu says it's over,” he said.
Destruction in Gaza
America's stamp is everywhere throughout Gaza which has gone down. Hala Rharrit, a US diplomat who resigned in protest, said she believes what has happened in the 25-mile strip of land would have been impossible without the US military.
Rharrit spent nearly two decades posted in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, where she worked on human rights and counter-terrorism. She was stationed in Dubai as deputy regional media director when the war broke out. Part of her job at the time was to monitor the Arab media and social media to document how America's role in the war was perceived in the Middle East. Rharrit sent daily reports to senior commanders in Washington containing dire images and warnings.
“I would show how difficult that was. A fragment of US bombs next to the murder of mostly children,” said Rharrit. “And that's the destruction.”
Rharrit said in some cases, she was shut down when she tried to speak.
“I would show images of children who were starving to death,” she said. “In one event, I was encouraged, 'Don't put that image in there. We don't want to see it. We don't want to see the children starve to death.'”
But others told her to keep the images inside, stressing that they needed to be seen.
US support for Israel affects America abroad
In the White House, it is believed that cutting off arms to Israel would lead to an even longer and deadlier conflict, and that it was American military aid and diplomacy that prevented a wider war in the Middle East.
But FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress in November 2023 that the war in Gaza has raised the threat of a terrorist attack at home.
The acting director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Brett Holmgren, told 60 Minutes that anti-American sentiment driven by the war in Gaza is at a level not seen since the Iraq War. Groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS are capitalizing on that idea, issuing the most specific calls for attacks on America in years, Holmgren said.
The anger across and beyond the Arab world is palpable, Rharrit said. She wrote protests and burned US flags.
“(This is) very important because we worked so hard after the war on terror to strengthen ties with the Arab world,” she said.
Rharrit believes that US support for Israel has put a target on America's back.
“And I say that as someone who has lived through two terrorist attacks myself,” said Rharrit. “I say that as someone who has worked hard on these issues and has keep a close eye on the area for two decades.”
Three months into the war, Rharrit says she was told her reports were no longer needed. She resigned last April. She said one of her breaking points was the death of a little girl named Sana al-Farra, whose photo she put in one of her reports – one of the thousands of children killed so far. this is in Gaza.
“She's wearing a princess dress, and she's in the picture waving her wand with a big, beautiful smile,” said Rharrit. “I saw my child in that child.”
