Former U.S. officials have spoken out about the Biden administration’s deep complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza, highlighting that the assault would not be possible without U.S. assistance and that the State Department is censoring those within the agency who speak out against it.
In a new interview with “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday, Josh Paul, who formerly oversaw arms shipment approvals within the State Department, said that the U.S. is implicated in every bombing in the Gaza Strip. Paul resigned from his position shortly after the genocide began on October 7, 2023, citing the U.S.’s staunch support of Israel as it carpet bombed Gaza.
“Most of the bombs come from America. Most of the technology comes from America. And all of the fighter jets, all of Israel’s fixed-wing fleet comes from America,” Paul said. “There is a linkage between every single bomb that is dropped in Gaza and the U.S. because every single bomb that is dropped is dropped from an American-made plane.”
Just according to publicly reported figures, the U.S. sent Israel $18 billion in military assistance in the first year of the genocide — a record figure for U.S. aid to Israel. Last year, the Biden administration also announced a $20 billion sale of more weapons to Israel, with $18.8 billion of the sale representing F-15 fighter jets and jet parts.
Then, this month, the Biden administration announced yet another planned sale of thousands of weapons to Israel, totalling $8 billion, including bombs and artillery shells — even as human rights groups like Amnesty International are warning that Israel is committing genocide and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Experts have long said that U.S. officials are risking complicity in these alleged crimes by sending Israel weapons without red lines.
“60 Minutes” aired footage from May in which American shell casings, printed with “U.S.A.” on the side, are present all over Gaza. The footage showed how Palestinians have even resorted to using the massive ammunition casings to prop up makeshift tents and clotheslines in displacement camps.
“Across this now-decimated 25 mile long strip of land, America’s stamp is everywhere,” the program’s host said.
Israel has destroyed the vast majority of Gaza’s infrastructure in over 15 months of genocide. The official death count, as tallied by Gaza health officials, is over 46,000 people, but researchers have estimated in an article published in The Lancet last week that the true toll from violent death alone could be well over 70,000 people.
Meanwhile, Israel’s humanitarian blockade is causing an unknown number of deaths due to starvation and disease. Experts, advocates and lawmakers have long said that the blockade violates international humanitarian law and renders the Israeli military ineligible to receive U.S. assistance, but the U.S. is reportedly purposefully sweeping aside these reports in order to continue sending Israel weapons.
Former U.S. Diplomat Hala Rharrit said in an interview with “60 Minutes” that she was actively censored by U.S. officials when she spoke up about Gaza. She said that, in daily reports she sent to higher ups, she “would show the complicity that was indisputable,” like images of U.S. bomb shells next to dead Palestinian children.
“When you tried to speak out, vocalize what you saw happening in Gaza, you feel like you were told to shut up?” asked “60 Minutes”’s Cecilia Vega.
“Yes,” responded Rharrit, who also resigned shortly after the genocide began in October 2023. “I would show images of children that were starved to death. In one incident, I was basically berated [by a superior] — ‘don’t put that image in there. We don’t want to see it. We don’t want to see that the children are starving to death.’”
Paul similarly said that U.S. officials are operating as though Israel’s atrocities in Gaza are a nonissue and should not be cited to interrupt the flow of weapons.
“After October 7th, there was no space for debate or discussion,” said Paul. “I was part of email chains where there were very clear directions saying, ‘Here are the latest requests from Israel. These need to be approved by 3 p.m.’”
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