US, Israeli officials will discuss civilian harm in Gaza in early December, State Department says

By Humeyra Pamuk and Simon Lewis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senior U.S. and Israeli officials will hold talks in early December in the first meeting of a new channel requested by Washington to raise concerns over civilian harm in Israel’s war in Gaza, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Tuesday.

An Oct. 13 letter from officials in President Joe Biden’s administration to Israel’s government said previous channels were not working and asked for a new channel to meet virtually before the end of that month.

Miller said at a press briefing that a first meeting had been scheduled to gather information about incidents involving Israel’s use of U.S.-provided weapons that are “a cause of concern or a cause of question.” He declined to say where the meeting would take place.

“We take all the information we gather… and feed it into our processes, both our policy making processes and the judgments that we have to make about potential violations of international humanitarian law, and we will continue to do that,” Miller added.

Miller declined to say whether the new channel would accelerate U.S. government assessments of potential violations of international law by Israel, and did not commit to any assessments concluding before Biden leaves office on Jan. 20.

“Our work is already moving as quickly as we can possibly make it move, but they are difficult assessments that we have to make,” he said.

Biden has offered strong backing to Israel since Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel in October 2023, but has raised concerns over Israel’s conduct in the assault it launched on Gaza and its impact on Palestinian civilians.

U.S. officials have identified nearly 500 potential incidents of harm to civilians in the Palestinian enclave since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023, sources said last month.

No action had been taken on any of the incidents, the sources said, under a State Department mechanism meant to assess incidents where civilians are killed or injured with U.S.-provided weapons and recommend actions to avoid future harm.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Simon Lewis; Editing by David Gregorio)