Dozens of Former US Officials Urge Biden to Pressure Israel on Palestinian Rights

(Patria) - Nearly seventy former US officials, diplomats and military officers have called on Joe Biden to warn Israel of serious consequences if it denies Palestinians civil rights and basic necessities and expands settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.

"The United States must be prepared to take concrete steps to oppose" such practices, they said in an open letter to President Biden, "including restrictions on the provision of (US) aid (to Israel) in accordance with US law and policy," Reuters reported.

Among the signatories were more than a dozen former ambassadors, as well as other retired State Department officials and former Pentagon, intelligence and White House officials, including Anthony Lake, national security adviser to former President Bill Clinton.

The letter highlighted growing revulsion in the United States over Israeli operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip that began with the October 7 attack on southern Israel in which they killed about 1,200 people and took 253 hostages. Much of Gaza has been destroyed and nearly 32,000 Palestinians killed. The United Nations says the population of 2.3 million has little food, water and shelter, with food shortages in some areas exceeding famine levels.

In the letter, the group said the Israeli military operation against Hamas was "necessary and justified." But Israel's operations have been "marked by successive violations" of international law that prohibits indiscriminate killing and the use of weapons that do not allow discrimination between combatants and civilians, the group said.

"Tens of thousands of Gazan civilians have been killed, the majority of whom are women and children," the group said. "Civilian killings of this nature and scale cannot be justified," they added. Israel denies that its operations violate international law.

The group said it supports Biden's call for an immediate ceasefire of at least six weeks, the establishment of a reliable system for delivering humanitarian aid and the release of hostages. The signatories also called on the Israeli military to abide by rules of engagement in accordance with international law.