By Erin Banco
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. gathered intelligence last year of Israeli officials discussing how their soldiers had sent Palestinians into Gaza tunnels the Israelis believed were potentially lined with explosives, according to two former U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
The information was shared with the White House and analyzed by the intelligence community in the final weeks of former President Joe Biden’s administration, the officials said.
International law prohibits the use of civilians as shields during military activity.
Officials inside the Biden administration had long raised concerns about news reports that indicated Israeli soldiers were using Palestinians to potentially protect themselves in Gaza. Washington’s collection of its own evidence on the subject has not been previously reported.
INTELLIGENCE RAISED QUESTIONS IN BIDEN WHITE HOUSE
The U.S. intelligence gathered in the final months of 2024 raised questions inside the White House and the intelligence community about how widely the tactic was being used and whether Israel’s soldiers were acting on guidance issued by military leaders, the U.S. officials said.
The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive national security information, did not provide details on whether the Palestinians referenced in the intelligence were prisoners or civilians.
Reuters could not determine whether the Biden administration discussed the intelligence with the Israeli government.
Former Biden White House officials did not respond to requests for comment. The CIA did not respond to a request for comment.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said it “prohibits the use of civilians as human shields or coercing them in any way to participate in military operations.” The Military Police Criminal Investigation Division is investigating “suspicions involving Palestinians in military missions,” the statement said.
The Israeli government did not answer questions about whether it discussed the intelligence with the U.S.
Media reports have also indicated that Hamas has used civilians as human shields, specifically embedding its militants in civilian structures such as hospitals. The group has denied those accusations.
Hamas-led militants seized 251 hostages in the October 7, 2023, attacks and killed another 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed nearly 69,000 Palestinians, health officials in the enclave say.
U.S. COMPLICITY?
The intelligence about the IDF’s use of civilians as human shields was one of several pieces that circulated inside the government during the administration’s late stages. It came as the intelligence community was increasingly analyzing new streams of information that revealed internal Israeli deliberations about its military conduct in Gaza.
Reuters reported last week that around that time, the Biden administration had also gathered intelligence that Israeli lawyers warned there was evidence that could support war crimes charges against Israel for its military campaign in Gaza.
The Israeli government did not respond to requests for comment about that story.
The former U.S. officials said the new intelligence from inside Israel raised serious concern among top officials who believed the information supported allegations from some inside the U.S. government that Israel was committing war crimes. If Israel were found guilty of war crimes, the U.S. could be held liable for providing weapons to the IDF. It would also likely force the U.S. to stop sharing intelligence with Israel.
Lawyers from across several U.S. agencies determined in the final weeks of the Biden administration, however, that the evidence did not show that Israel had committed war crimes and that the U.S. could continue supporting Israel with weapons and intelligence.
Some former U.S. officials said the broad set of intelligence received late in the Biden administration described only individual incidents in Gaza and did not represent overarching Israeli practice or policy.
(Reporting by Erin Banco, Jonathan Landay and Humeyra PamukEditing by Craig Timberg and Rod Nickel)
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