United States support for Israel in the Israel–Hamas war



Following the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel and outbreak of the Israel–Hamas war, the United States began to send warships and military aircraft into the Eastern Mediterranean and began sending Israel more military supplies. The Joe Biden administration stated that Israel would receive "whatever it needs" to support its offensive against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

After an initial period of Western support for the offensive, Israel and the United States became increasingly isolated amid growing worldwide calls for a ceasefire,  with the US vetoing three United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for a humanitarian ceasefire. International rights groups have condemned the U.S. for providing military and diplomatic support to Israel that they say risks complicity in Israeli war crimes. By March 7, 2024, the US had sent Israel over 100 weapons shipments since the war began.

As the war went on, US–Israel relations began to become strained. The US government became more critical of Israel and its stance slowly began to change as Palestinian civilian casualties rose and opposition grew. In February, the Biden administration issued a national security directive requiring written assurances from Israel that it was using US-supplied weapons in line with international law. In March, the US began calling for an immediate and sustained ceasefire linked to the release of hostages, and Israel berated the US for allowing a ceasefire resolution to pass at the UN Security Council. The US also voiced its opposition to much of Israel's post-war plan for Gaza. Still, on March 29, 2024, the Biden administration authorized the transfer of billions of dollars worth of bombs and fighter jets to Israel.

Background
After Hamas gunmen attacked Israel on October 7, resulting in the death of 1,139 Israelis, Israel began a campaign against Gaza. Since the start of the Israeli operation, more than 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, including over 12,300 children and 8,400 women. Several thousand more are missing and presumed trapped under rubble. Israel placed Gaza under a complete blockade, including the prevention of fuel and water from entering the Gaza Strip. The United States described Hamas' preemptive attack as "unprovoked," and started sending warships and warplanes into the region, prepared to give Israel whatever it needs. The United States Commission on Civil Rights meanwhile called on the government to address the underlying issues that have led to the recent violence, such as Israel's 56-year illegal possession of the Palestinian lands and its 16-year blockade of Gaza as well as "the apartheid regime throughout historic Palestine."

Since Israel's founding in 1948, it has received $158 billion in military aid from the United States, making it the greatest recipient in history. Following Israel's victory over surrounding Arab forces in the 1967 Six-Day War and its subsequent occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, military assistance to the country surged significantly. The Iron Dome, which became operational in 2011, was created with the help of the United States, which is responsible for providing components for the system, including allocating more than $1.5 billion for missile defense for Israel in 2022. As part of a record $38 billion agreement over ten years negotiated under former US President Barack Obama in 2016, US military aid to Israel exceeded $3.8 billion in 2023. Of the $3.8 billion in military aid given to Israel this year, half a billion was for Israel's missile defense. Washington has announced that it will replenish Israel's ammunition used in the recent war against Hamas.

October

 * Hours after the start of the Israel–Hamas war on October 7, the United States started sending warships and warplanes into the region, prepared to give Israel whatever it needs.
 * US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin ordered the deployment of United States Navy's Carrier Strike Group 12, led by the USS Gerald R. Ford.
 * Israel asked the United States for Iron Dome interceptors, and President Joe Biden said Washington would quickly provide additional equipment and resources, including ammunition, which are going to reach Israel within days.
 * US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington would provide its "full support" to Israel, with guided missile launchers and F-35 fighter jets among the equipment being sent.
 * By October 10, more ships and troops were on their way to Israel, and additional troops in the United States were being prepared to deploy if requested. One US aircraft carrier and its strike group were already in the eastern Mediterranean, and a second US carrier had left and was underway.
 * In addition, three naval warships were sent to the area. A large number of aircraft were sent to US military bases throughout the Middle East, and US special operations forces cooperated with the Israeli military in planning and intelligence.
 * As Israel prepares for a possible ground attack on Gaza, the Biden administration and prominent members of Congress are preparing an aid package from the United States with about $2 billion in additional funding to support Israel, Time reported.
 * On October 12, Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated America's commitment to Israel's security during a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
 * On October 14, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III announced that he had dispatched a second aircraft carrier to the eastern Mediterranean “to deter hostile actions against Israel or any efforts towards widening this war”. In addition, the Air Force was sending twice as many F-16, A-10, and F-15E squadrons as before to the Persian Gulf region in order to intensify its land-based assault aircraft presence there. According to officials, the United States would have an aerial armada of more than 100 attack planes when combined with the four squadrons of F/A-18 jets that were stationed onboard each carrier. Additionally, to help with intelligence gathering and preparation for any operations aimed at locating and rescuing the 150 hostages—among them some Americans—that Hamas is keeping, the Pentagon had dispatched a small team of Special Operations personnel to Israel.
 * On October 15, the White House declared that it would attempt this week to get congressional approval of a fresh $2 billion weaponry aid package for Israel and Ukraine.
 * Also US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered about 2,000 troops to be prepared for possible deployment to Israel, several defense officials said.
 * According to three American officials and one Israeli official, the Biden administration was discussing about the possibility of using military force if Hezbollah joins the Gaza war.
 * The United States was prepared to send more forces as a deterrent to the Middle East if necessary.
 * By October 17, five shipments of American weapons and equipment had arrived in Israel. The US put 2,000 troops on high alert and extended the deployment of an aircraft carrier in the Middle East.
 * On October 18, the US vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that would have condemned the Hamas attack on Israel while calling for a pause in the fighting to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. The US said the resolution did not do enough to underscore Israel's right to self-defense. The US Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told the council "We are on the ground doing the hard work of diplomacy. We believe we need to let that diplomacy play out".
 * On October 19, one day after traveling to Israel, President Biden urged Congress to increase military aid to Israel, claiming that Hamas aimed to "annihilate" Israeli democracy.
 * On October 20, Biden announced that the additional funds he asked Congress to authorize would come to a total of $14 billion, as part of a $105 billion military aid package that addressed Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel as well as US border security.
 * On October 21 the Pentagon declared that two of its most potent missile defense systems—a THAAD battery and extra Patriot batteries—would be deployed to the Middle East.

November

 * A Republican plan, approved by the United States House of Representatives, allocated $14.5 billion in military aid for Israel.

December

 * A Wall Street Journal report says that the United States has given Israel a range of munitions, including so-called "bunker buster" bombs, for its war in Gaza. The report stated that US arms shipments to Israel since the start of the war included 15,000 bombs and 57,000 155mm artillery shells, mostly carried on C-17 military cargo planes. U.S. has also sent more than 5,000 unguided Mk82 bombs, more than 5,400 Mk84 bombs, about 1,000 small diameter GBU-39 bombs, and almost 3,000 JDAMs. The Wall Street Journal says that some of the bloodiest Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have involved the use of big US-made bombs, such as the one that destroyed an apartment complex in the Jabalia refugee camp and killed over a hundred people.
 * On December 8, the US vetoed another UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. The US called it "unbalanced" because it did not condemn the Hamas attack nor acknowledge Israel's right to self-defense.
 * On December 9, the Pentagon said that on the prior day, Biden used emergency authority to skip congressional review to sell ~14,000 tank shells worth $106.5 million for immediate delivery to Israel.
 * On December 12, Biden said "Israel's security can rest on the United States" but warned that Israel was losing international support because of its "indiscriminate bombing" of Gaza.
 * On December 29, the United States government again used emergency authority to sell Israel artillery shells and related weapons worth 147.5 million dollars in order to replenish Israeli weapons stockpiles.

January

 * On January 4, John Kirby stated the United States had "not seen anything" that Israel had done that would make the US change its approach.
 * On January 18, US Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller stated, "Our support for Israel remains ironclad."
 * PM Netanyahu stated that he would not support a Palestinian state and that he was proud to have thus far prevented a state, leading Biden to comment that he believed a two-state solution was still possible with Netanyahu in power.
 * On January 19, John Kirby stated, "We don't have any indications that there's deliberate efforts to commit war crimes" by Israel.
 * Brett McGurk, the White House leader of post-war Gaza planning, was reportedly pushing a plan that would exchange minimal Israeli interference in the Palestinian Territories for Saudi normalization with Israel.
 * The CIA established a new taskforce to provide intelligence to Israel regarding Hamas leaders.

February

 * On February 8, Biden called Israel's actions in Gaza "over the top". Following this, the Biden administration issued a national security directive demanding written assurances from Israel (and other countries) that it was using US-supplied weapons in line with international law or face a pause in weapons transfers. Israel has to prove this to the US State Department on a yearly basis or risk having its weapons supplies cut.
 * In a call with Benjamin Netanyahu on February 11, Biden said the US would not support an Israeli assault on Rafah without a "credible and executable plan" for ensuring the safety of civilians. Three anonymous U.S. officials stated that the US would not punish Israel if its forces attacked Rafah without a plan to protect civilians.
 * The State Department stated it was reviewing reports of Israel harming Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
 * The Senate passed a US$14 billion aid package for Israel.
 * The U.S. began preparing to send Israel more weapons ahead of its planned Rafah offensive, stating, "Israel takes effective action to prevent gross violations of human rights."
 * On 20 February, the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution seeking an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire". The US envoy, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said that the resolution would undermine ongoing hostage negotiations: "Demanding an immediate unconditional ceasefire, without an agreement requiring Hamas to release the hostages, will not bring about durable peace". Instead, the US proposed a draft UN Security Council resolution, calling for a "temporary ceasefire in Gaza as soon as practicable, based on the formula of all hostages being released". It stated that a Rafah offensive would have "serious implications" and "should not proceed under current circumstances". The US's draft resolution also rejects any Israeli attempt at demographic or territorial change in Gaza that would violate international law. The US said it would not yet put the resolution to a vote as it wanted to allow negotiations to continue.
 * Republican congressman Andy Ogles responded "we should kill 'em all" when asked about the deaths of Palestinian children.
 * Aaron Bushnell immolated himself in front of the Embassy of Israel, Washington, D.C. in protest of the war.

March

 * Following the Flour massacre, the US began airdrops of aid into Gaza. Officials stated, "Biden remains unwilling to make any major shifts in his policy toward Israel, including placing conditions on military aid to Israel".
 * Algeria proposed a motion to the UN Security Council to release a statement condemning the massacre and blaming Israel, which was blocked by the United States. The deputy US ambassador to the UN, Robert Wood, said the US was alarmed by the incident and called on Israel to investigate, but claimed "We don't have all the facts on the ground". Michal Herzog in Beit HaNassi, March 2024 (MYN 2287).jpg in Jerusalem, 28 March 2024]]
 * Biden called on Republicans to pass his foreign aid bill to "help ensure that Israel can defend itself". He said it would also provide "critical humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people".
 * On 4 March, US vice president Kamala Harris called for "an immediate ceasefire for at least the next six weeks" because of "the immense scale of suffering in Gaza". She said Israel must let more aid into Gaza and called on Hamas to accept a ceasefire deal involving the release of hostages. She added that "President Joe Biden and I are unwavering in our commitment to Israel's security". Harris was reportedly urging Biden to speak more about the high death toll and plight of survivors in Gaza.
 * UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield stated, "Not nearly enough humanitarian aid is getting into the hands of Palestinians".
 * U.S. officials told Congress they had approved more than 100 arms sales to Israel since 7 October.
 * Some of Biden's closest allies in the U.S. Senate — including Chris Coons, Jack Reed, Tim Kaine, and Patty Murray — were reportedly pressuring Biden to change his tactics in Gaza. Senator Bernie Sanders, along with seven other U.S. senators, warned Biden that arming Israel was a violation of the Foreign Assistance Act, which bars the U.S. from arming countries that limit humanitarian aid.
 * An intelligence report found that Israel was likely to experience armed resistance from Hamas "for years to come" and that Netanyahu's viability as leader "may be in jeopardy".
 * In a speech on 14 March, the US Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, berated Israeli PM Netanyahu as an "obstacle to peace". He said that Netanyahu "has been too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza" and that "Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah". Schumer added that if Netanyahu stayed in power after the war, "the United States will have no choice but to play a more active role in shaping Israeli policy by using our leverage to change the present course". President Biden praised the speech and said Schumer's "serious concerns" are shared by many Americans.
 * A group of 19 Senate Democrats sent an open letter to Biden, stating, "We request the Biden administration promptly establish a bold, public framework outlining the steps necessary" to create a Palestinian state.
 * Jack Lew, Joseph R. Biden's ambassador to Israel, endorsed Israel's claim that it was abiding by international law during its war on Gaza.
 * Reuters reported Congressional leaders and the White House had reached a deal to bar funding for UNRWA, the organization principally responsible for delivering food and providing education in Gaza, until March 2025.
 * Upon the bill's passage, U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen stated, "Denying funding for UNRWA is tantamount to denying food to starving people and restricting medical supplies to injured civilians".
 * The bill included a long-standing provision that limits aid to the Palestinian Authority if "the Palestinians initiate an International Criminal Court (ICC) judicially authorized investigation, or actively supports such an investigation, that subjects Israeli nationals to an investigation for alleged crimes against Palestinians."
 * John Barrasso stated that in a meeting with Netanyahu, senate Republicans told him that "Israel has every right to defend themselves".
 * The US put forward a draft UN Security Council resolution which stated the "imperative" for "an immediate and sustained ceasefire", facilitating aid delivery and supporting ongoing talks between Israel and Hamas, linked to the release of hostages. On March 22, the draft resolution was vetoed by Russia and China, who said the wording was ambiguous and was not a straightforward "call" or "demand" to halt hostilities. Secretary Blinken Meets with Israel War Cabinet (53603891374).jpg and the Israeli war cabinet in Tel Aviv, Israel, 22 March 2024]]
 * On March 22, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he told the Israeli government that "A major military ground operation [in Rafah] is not the way to do it. It risks killing many more civilians, it risks wreaking greater havoc on the provision of humanitarian assistance, it risks further isolation of Israel around the world and jeopardizing its long-term security and standing". He added "We’re looking forward to seeing Israeli officials in Washington next week to go through the details and the best way forward. We’re determined that Israel succeed in defending itself".
 * On March 23, the US Defense Ministry said a planned visit by the Israeli Defense Minister to the U.S. would focus on "the progress of the fighting to dismantle Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the efforts to return the hostages held captive by Hamas, the actions being taken on the ground to bring in humanitarian aid", as well as on weapons procurement "to preserve the qualitative advantage of the State of Israel in the region".
 * On March 24, Vice president Kamala Harris replied, "I am ruling out nothing," when asked if there would be consequences for Israel if it invaded Rafah.
 * A group of 17 Democratic senators urged the Biden administration to reject Israel's report stating that it was complying with international human rights law in Gaza. The following day, the U.S. Department of State accepted Israel's statements regarding its compliance.
 * On March 25, the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire for the remainder of Ramadan, "leading to a lasting sustainable ceasefire", and demanding the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. The US abstained, allowing the resolution to pass. The Israeli government berated the US for not voting against the resolution, and called off a meeting between an Israeli delegation and US officials in Washington.
 * The U.S. House introduced a bill to reevaluate the U.S. relationship with South Africa.
 * On 30 March, the White House authorized $2.5 billion in weapons transfers to Israel.
 * Republican Congressman Tim Walberg suggested dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza to "get it over quick."

April

 * In response to a question asking whether additional weapons transfers to Israel would weaken U.S. credibility, a State Department spokesman stated, "We are committed to Israel’s right to self-defence, and this is a long-term commitment the United States has made."
 * Following the World Central Kitchen drone strikes, a senior U.S. official told Politico, "It’s just rinse and repeat with the Israelis. The American political system can’t or won’t draw a real line with them and that is regrettable."
 * U.S. Senator Chris Coons stated, "If Benjamin Netanyahu were to order the IDF into Rafah at scale... and make no provision for civilians or for humanitarian aid, I would vote to condition aid to Israel".
 * On 9 April, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Pentagon had no evidence that Israel was carrying out a genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. He said there was "no question" that there had been "far too many" civilian casualties in the war in Gaza.
 * A report by ProPublica found that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had failed to take action on State Department recommendations that units in the Israeli army be sanctioned due to their involvement with rapes and killings.
 * A U.S. State Department report described "allegations of numerous incidents such as arbitrary or unlawful killings, enforced disappearance, torture and unjustified arrests of journalists".
 * Biden signed a $95bn security package which included around $17bn in military aid for Israel and $1bn in humanitarian aid for Gaza.
 * On 24 April, twelve Republicans in the U.S. Senate, Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Mitch McConnell, Marsha Blackburn, Katie Boyd Britt, Ted Budd, Kevin Cramer, Bill Hagerty, Pete Ricketts, Rick Scott, and Tim Scott, sent a letter to the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor, Karim Ahmad Khan, that warned him that any attempt by the ICC to pursue charges against Israeli officials over war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip will be interpreted "not only as a threat to Israel’s sovereignty but to the sovereignty of the United States." The Senators told Khan "Target Israel and we will target you ... [and] sanction your employees and associates, and bar you and your families from the United States. ... You have been warned."
 * Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said, "It is fine to express opposition to a possible judicial action, but it is absolutely wrong to interfere in a judicial matter by threatening judicial officers, their family members and their employees with retribution. This thuggery is something befitting the mafia, not U.S. senators."
 * A joint assessment from the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration; the Office of Global Criminal Justice and the Bureau of International Organization Affairs found that Israel is potentially violating international humanitarian law in Gaza and that Israel's claims that they are using U.S.-supplied weaponry in accordance with such laws are neither "credible or reliable".
 * The U.S. Department of State found five Israeli army units responsible for "gross violations of human rights" prior to 7 October and that they remained eligible for military aid.

May

 * On 1 May 2024, U.S. Senators met International Criminal Court officials online to discuss potential arrest warrants. On 3 May 2024, chief prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan called for "all attempts to impede, intimidate, or improperly influence officials [to] cease immediately" and referred to Article 70 of the Rome Statute defining "retaliating against an official of the court on account of duties performed" as an offence.
 * Tony Blinken stated the "only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas". Two days later, Hamas agreed to a U.S.-negotiated ceasefire, which Israel then rejected.
 * A letter signed by 86 House Representatives stated that Israel's restrictions on humanitarian aid called into question its assurances of compliance with the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act.
 * The U.S. president stated it would halt the shipment of bombs to Israel if a "major invasion" of Rafah were launched, stating, "Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs". Less than a week later, however, Biden notified Congress about a $1 billion arms sale to Israel.
 * A U.S. State Department report found Israel's use of U.S. weapons "likely" violated international law. In the same report, however, the U.S. found Israel's assurances it was following international law to be "credible". Avril Benoit, the executive director of Doctors Without Borders, stated the analysis was not a "good faith effort to uphold US law".
 * On May 12, 2024, Donald Trump stated, "(Biden) is surrendering our college campuses to anarchists, jihadist freaks and anti-american extremists who are trying to tear down our American flag. ... If you come here from another country and try to bring jihadism or anti-Americanism or anti-Semitism to our campuses, we will immediately deport you. You'll be out of that school."
 * The U.S. House passed legislation that would slash the U.S. military budget unless Biden sent 3,500 heavy-duty bombs to Israel. The White House said Biden would veto it if it come to his desk.
 * US President Joe Biden said that the request of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant against the leaders of Israel is cruel and the U.S. will always stand by Israel.
 * May 31 – Biden announces an Israeli ceasefire proposal.

June

 * US lawmakers have passed legislation aimed at sanctioning the International Criminal Court (ICC) over efforts by its prosecutors to issue arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials accused of war crimes in Gaza.
 * The Nuseirat rescue operation was aided by intelligence support from the United States.
 * Benjamin Netanyahu was invited to address a joint session of Congress, scheduled for July 24, 2024.
 * The United States officially signed a Letter of Offer and Acceptance, allowing Israel to purchase 25 additional Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighter jets for $3 billion.
 * Rep. Gregory Meeks and Sen. Ben Cardin signed off to an arms sale to Israel totaling $18 billion, after pressure from the Biden administration.
 * The U.S. House passed a bill barring the U.S. State Department from using the Gaza Health Ministry's death toll statistics.

Analysis
U.S. lawmakers have long viewed Israel as an ally to help protect U.S. strategic interests in the Middle East. Maintaining Israel's regional military hegemony, according to Al-Jazeera, is a central element of U.S. Middle East policy. This has been achieved with U.S. financial aid and an increase in Israel's military arsenal. On the question of why Joe Biden is reluctant to freeze arms transfers or impose conditions on future supplies, Guardian journalist, Robert Tait writes that the US is concerned that pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu could push him towards a common goal with Republicans in a year leading to the election. Josh Paul, who resigned over sending arms to Israel, has described Biden policy in favor of "the status quo of the occupation" and a "shortsighted, destructive, unjust" policy that "will only lead to more and deeper suffering for both the Israeli and the Palestinian people — and is not in the long term American interest."

Although the U.S. has asked Israel to protect civilians and allow humanitarian aid, State Secretary Antony Blinken acknowledged that there is "a gap" between these appeals and "the actual results that we’re seeing on the ground." The United States has not used its leverage over Israel—its weapons transfers and diplomatic support—to ensure civilian safety, leading the Washington Post to describe American rhetoric as a "good cop-bad cop approach." Aaron David Miller of the CEIP said that the Biden administration deserved credit for the humanitarian pause negotiations, but that it had "tethered" itself to Israeli war aims that cannot be achieved without bringing "grievous harm to the civilian population."

Ali Harb described the contradictions between media reports about Biden's "frustration" with Netanyahu, and his continued military support for Israel, stating, "The US keeps calling for minimising civilian casualties, but the Palestinian death toll keeps growing. The Biden administration repeatedly emphasises the two-state solution; Israeli leaders continue to explicitly say they oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state." In March 2024, Al Jazeera English senior analyst Marwan Bishara assessed a perceived shift in Biden's tone toward the war, stating, "Biden is underlining a change of tone, not a change of policy. And that explains a bit why he sounds as if he's speaking from both sides of his mouth."

In late-March 2024, Tamer Qarmout, a professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, stated, "You don't see the US using its real leverage to stop Israel or correct its behaviours." While Republican support for Israel remains strong, many Democrats are debating making future U.S. military aid conditional on Israel's behavior in the West Bank and Gaza. According to Steven A. Cook, for the United States, a more normal bilateral relationship with Israel is likely to reduce the moral costs of military aid.

U.S. isolation
Israel and the United States have become increasingly isolated amid growing global calls for a ceasefire. American political scientist Ian Bremmer stated that the Biden administration's position unconditionally supporting the Israeli invasion of Gaza has left Joe Biden as isolated on the world stage as Russian president Vladimir Putin has been since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in 2022. Jeffrey Sachs, a professor of economics at Columbia University, also stated that the United States was being isolated on the world stage due to its support for Israel. In March 2024, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders wrote the U.S. was "virtually alone in the world" in continuing to defend Israel's actions as the Palestinian death toll has sparked widespread outrage and protests.

Double standards
The Islamic world and much of the Global South accused the United States and its allies of a double standard in condemning an illegal occupation in Ukraine while standing firmly behind Israel. Western leaders, pressed for weeks to say whether the loss of thousands mostly civilian lives could be a violation of international law, spoke only tentatively, adding that they could not judge: "We're not going to get dragged into all this judge-and-jury role," US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said. By comparison, a year earlier the United States Department of State had officially announced that, based on available information, the US government assessed that members of Russia's forces in Ukraine had committed war crimes." The U.S. State Department said there is no need to launch any formal domestic investigation into whether Israel has committed war crimes, even though the weapons it uses are supplied by the US. In a speech to the European Parliament, the EU's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said water cuts are a violation of international law regardless of where they occur, whether in Ukraine or Gaza.

In an interview, Aaron David Miller, a former State Department official, stated to The New Yorker, "Do I think that Joe Biden has the same depth of feeling and empathy for the Palestinians of Gaza as he does for the Israelis? No, he doesn’t". In April 2024, the Foreign Ministry of Turkey accused the U.S. of having a "double-standard policy on human rights". Barry Trachtenberg, a professor at Wake Forest University, criticized Western support of Israeli military actions, stating, "What we’re seeing is this clear double-standard where when it’s in the interests of the United States and Western allies, they’ll invoke international law. When it’s not in their interests, they’ll clearly violate international law".

Backlash to US support
Human rights organizations and UN officials have heavily criticized the Biden administration for vetoing multiple UN resolutions calling for an immediate ceasefire and for continuing to send arms to Israel. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said the US was complicit in war crimes, and Amnesty International's Secretary General said that the veto showed that the US "displays a callous disregard for civilian suffering in the face of a staggering death toll." Doctors Without Borders said that the veto "stands in sharp contrast to the values it professes to uphold," and that the US was providing "diplomatic cover for the ongoing atrocities in Gaza." Human Rights Watch said that the veto and the military support "risks complicity in war crimes." Following the veto, a UN General Assembly resolution calling for a ceasefire garnered overwhelming support, with 153 countries voting for the resolution to 10 opposed. Turkey's president called for reform of the UN Security Council system that allows for the five permanent members to veto resolutions supported by the overwhelming majority of countries.

Polling by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies showed 94 percent of respondents in sixteen Middle East countries had a negative view of U.S. policy in the war and 76 percent had a diminished view of the country due to its policies. In a social media post, the Palestine UN mission criticized the US secretary of state for not acknowledging the tens of thousands of killed Palestinians in his post marking the 100 days since the start of the war.

On 4 February 2024, Irish MEP Mick Wallace accused the United States of lacking respect for other cultures or international law after it initiated a bombing campaign against Yemen. Following a US veto of a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, Zhang Jun, China's ambassador to the UN, stated it was "nothing different from giving the green light to the continued slaughter".

U.S. House
On October 29, 2023, the only Palestinian-American in Congress, Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), accused Israel of committing genocide, saying, "President Biden, not all America is with you on this one, and you need to wake up and understand. We are literally watching people commit genocide." Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) stated on December 27, 2023, that U.S. policy in Israel had failed. Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA) stated on January 3, 2024, that Israeli officials' statements calling for the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza were "reprehensible." Tlaib and Congressman Cori Bush (D-MO) released a joint statement on January 12 in support of the South Africa International Court of Justice case, stating, "The US must stop trying to discredit and undermine this case and the international legal system it claims to support." Congressmembers Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Val Hoyle (D-OR) and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) condemned Biden's 2024 missile strikes in Yemen on January 12, stating that only Congress has the power to approve a war. A January 19 letter from 60 Democratic Congressmembers urged U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to firmly condemn the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza. A group of a dozen Jewish Congressmembers issued a statement on January 19 condemning Netanyahu's opposition to a Palestinian state, which read, "We strongly disagree with the Prime Minister. A two-state solution is the path forward."

Texas Congressman Lloyd Doggett wrote on January 24: "After all America has done for him, if Netanyahu 'needs to be able to say no' to us, we need to say no to him and do so now!" On January 24, a group of five Congressmembers requested the Government Accountability Office to review whether arms transferred to Israel were being used to violate international law. Mark Pocan (D-WI) criticized Biden's decision to suspend funding to UNRWA, stating on January 29: "UNRWA feeds 1.2 million people a day, as well as helps distribute aid now to all Palestinians in need. Aid needs to be restored now to help the displaced millions in Gaza." Chuy Garcia (D-IL) stated that the "decision to freeze UNRWA funding" should be reversed. On February 11, 2024, Congresswoman Cori Bush criticized Israel's impending invasion of Rafah, stating, "Almost half of Gaza's population has taken refuge in Rafah. There's nowhere else to go." Congressman Ro Khanna also criticized Biden's response to Israel's planned attack on Rafah, stating, "This is not the time for vague generalities about doing more to protect civilian life."

On February 28, U.S. Congresswoman Madeleine Dean (D-PA) called for an end to the war and condemned Netanyahu, stating, "Prime Minister Netanyahu's dishonesty – his broken promises to use precision strikes to protect civilians and his false claims that safe zones have been created and enforced – is unacceptable". A group of two dozen House members demanded Biden and Blinken take steps to ensure journalists' safety in Gaza, stating: "Not enough steps have been taken to safeguard the lives of the civilian population in Gaza, including journalists". On February 29, Congressman Jim McGovern called for the U.S. to increase humanitarian aid to Gaza, stating, "Massive humanitarian support is needed to save innocent lives." A group of six U.S. House Representatives – Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Sean Casten (D-IL), Madeleine Dean, Becca Balint (D-VT), Salud Carbajal (D-CA), and Mark Takano (D-CA) – returned from a trip to Israel and released a joint statement, saying, "We are deeply worried that Prime Minister Netanyahu is moving toward the total destruction of Gaza and has demonstrated an utter disregard for Palestinian lives". Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) stated in May 2024, "We are way past the red line. We cannot continue supporting this."

U.S. Senate
On November 2, 2023, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) became the first U.S. Senator to call for a permanent ceasefire. He was followed by Jeff Merkley (D-OR) later that same month. On December 23, 2023, US Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), stated, "There's a big gap between what the United States says is essential, and what the Netanyahu government is prepared to do. And when you see these big gaps, the United States looks feckless." US Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) criticized Biden's emergency sale of weapons to Israel on December 30, 2023, stating, "Why should the Admin bypass Congress on arms sales to any nation? Bypassing Congress = keeping the American public in the dark." U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) forced a vote on January 17, 2024, on a resolution requiring the State Department to explore whether U.S. weapons were being used to violate international humanitarian law.

On February 7, 2024, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) stated he would support an amendment requiring weapons sold internationally to be used in compliance with U.S. law, international humanitarian law, and the laws of armed conflict. In a speech on February 13, Senator Chris Van Hollen accused the Israeli government of committing war crimes in Gaza, stating, "Kids in Gaza are now dying from the deliberate withholding of food. That is a war crime. It is a textbook war crime. And that makes those who orchestrate it war criminals." On March 9, Senator Bernie Sanders criticized members of Congress, stating, "It is absurd to criticise Netanyahu's war in one breath and provide another $10bn to continue that war in the next." On April 29, Senator Van Hollen of Maryland there was "serious doubt on the integrity of the process in the Biden administration for reviewing whether the Netanyahu government is complying with international law in Gaza".

In May 2024, Bernie Sanders asked how the U.S. would be able to criticize other countries' human rights abuses if it ignored the "crimes against humanity" committed in Gaza. In June 2024, Senator Chris Van Hollen urged sanctions against Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich during a U.S. congressional subcommittee meeting.

Within the Biden administration
In January 2024, a letter was signed by more than a dozen Biden campaign staffers calling for condition of US support to Israel and a ceasefire. Paul told The Guardian that the administration is witnessing "pretty extraordinary levels of dissent." On 2 February 2024, a group of 800 U.S. and European officials signed an open letter stating their governments' policies were weakening their nations' "moral standing." Following the World Central Kitchen drone strikes on 1 April 2024, internal dissent within the Biden administration on the issue of weapons sales to Israel increased.

Resignations
By 7 January 2024, two officials from the Biden administration—Josh Paul and Tariq Habash, working on arms sale at the State Department and policy adviser at the Department of Education respectively—had resigned in opposition to US support to Israel's war efforts. In March 2024, another State Department staffer working on human rights, Anelle Sheline, resigned over the administration's support to the war, in particular its bypassing of Congress to authorize the sale of weapons to Israel. In April 2024, the U.S. State Department Arabic spokesperson resigned in protest of the administration's Gaza policy. In May 2024, Lily Greenberg Call, the special assistant to the Interior Department's chief of staff, resigned in protest of Biden's Gaza policies. On 30 May, a senior State Department official resigned, stating U.S. statements that Israel was not blocking humanitarian aid into Gaza were false. In June 2024, the twelve public Biden administration resignees signed a joint statement calling Biden's Gaza policy "a failure and a threat to U.S. national security". In July 2024, a political appointee in the Department of the Interior resigned in protest of Biden's Gaza policies.

In the U.S. military
On February 25, 2024, Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old serviceman of the United States Air Force, died after setting himself on fire outside the front gate of the Embassy of Israel in Washington, D.C., declaring that he would "no longer be complicit in genocide".

In May 2024, US Army Major Harrison Mann resigned in protest of Biden's Gaza policies. In June 2024, an Air Force engineer resigned in protest of the United States' "complicit[ity] in the genocide in Gaza". Later the same month, two U.S. Air Force enlistees stated they were seeking conscientious objector status due to the United States' support for Israel's action in Gaza.

Muslim and Arab Americans
Amongst the Muslim and Arab American communities, there was strong backlash to US support of Israel, with some vowing to abstain from supporting Biden in the 2024 presidential election. Palestinian-Americans with family in Gaza were reportedly "pleading with the U.S. government to evacuate their family members." Some, including former-Congressman Justin Amash, reported the death of family members from Israeli airstrikes. American citizens stuck in Gaza also criticized the United States government's response to the conflict. In a meeting with Biden's campaign chair Julie Chávez Rodriguez, the publisher of Arab American News reportedly told her, "If this man wants our vote, he has to do more than Jesus Christ – bring a lot more dead back to life. Thousands of people's blood is on his hands." In response to late-February 2024 reports that Biden again planned to veto a UN resolution for a ceasefire, the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights stated, "Our government is beyond evil."

During the Michigan Democratic primary, Biden received less than a quarter of the vote in predominantly Arab areas in Dearborn. In 2024, Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud declined an invitation to meet with Biden campaign officials prior to the 2024 United States presidential election, due to the Biden administration's stance on the Israel-Hamas war. On Super Tuesday, nearly 20% of voters in Minnesota voted uncommitted in protest of Biden's Gaza policies. In March 2024, a coalition of Muslim and Palestinian organizations from Chicago refused a meeting with the Biden campaign, stating, "There is no point in more meetings".

Internal public opinion


In a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on November 15, 2023, 32% of respondents said that the U.S. should support Israel, 39% said that the U.S. should be a neutral mediator, 4% said that the U.S. should support Palestinians, and 15% said the U.S. shouldn't be involved at all.

In a Gallup poll released on November 30, 2023, 50% of the U.S. respondents approved of Israel's military action in Gaza, and 45% disapproved. In November 2023, the Jewish Election Institute found that 74% of Jewish American registered voters approved of the Biden administration's handling of the war.

In a Data for Progress poll released on December 5, 2023, 61% of likely voters, including a majority of Democrats (76%) and Independents (57%) and a plurality of Republicans (49%), supported the U.S. calling for a permanent ceasefire and a de-escalation of violence in Gaza; 83% of Democrats, 74% of Independents, and 63% of Republicans supported sending food, water, and medical supplies to people in Gaza; 77% of Democrats, 63% of Independents, and 55% of Republicans supported ensuring that people in Gaza have reliable access to fuel and electricity; and 63% of voters, including 65% of those under age 45, agreed with the statement that “The U.S. should hold its ally Israel to a high standard and only provide military aid to Israel if they meet our standards for human rights."

In a The New York Times/Siena College poll released on December 19, 2023, 44 percent of voters said that Israel should stop its military campaign to protect against civilian casualties, and 39 percent said that Israel should continue its military campaign even if it means that civilian casualties in Gaza mount. 57% of voters said that they disapproved of President Biden's handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, whereas 33% approved.

In a The Economist/YouGov poll released on January 24, 2024, 35% of U.S. adults agreed that Israel's military campaign against Palestinians amounts to genocide, 36% disagreed, and 29% were undecided. Among U.S. cirizens aged 18–29, 49% of those surveyed agreed that Israel is committing genocide, with 24% disagreeing, and 27% uncertain.

In an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released on February 2, 2024, 50% of U.S. adults said that the military response from Israel in the Gaza Strip had gone too far, whereas 31% said that it had "been about right", and 15% thought that it had "not gone far enough".

As of February 25, 2024, over 70 cities in the United States have voted for a ceasefire.

In a Gallup poll released on March 4, 2024, positive opinions of Israel had dropped from 64% to 38% amongst young people aged 18 to 34. Overall, 58% of Americans had a positive view of Israel.

In a Center for Economic and Policy Research poll released on March 5, 2024, 52% of U.S. citizens supported ending arms transfers to Israel. 62% of Democrats supported halting arms sales, while 14% disagreed, whereas 30% of Republicans supported the measure, and 55% opposed it.

In a Gallup Poll released on March 27, 2024, 55% of the responders disapproved of Israel's military action in Gaza, 36% approved, and 9% had no opinion.

In a Data for Progress poll, in collaboration with Zeteo, released on May 8, 2024, 83% of Democrats, 56% of Republicans, and 70% of all likely voters supported the United States calling for a permanent ceasefire a de-escalation of violence in Gaza; 56% of Democrats, 23% of Republicans, and 39% of all likely voters believed that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, with 22% of Democrats, 19% of Republicans, and 23% of all likely voters being uncertain regarding the issue; and 55% of Democrats, 36% of Republicans, and 46% of all likely voters said that they disapprove of college campuses limiting students' rights and abilities to protest against Israel's military operations, whereas 32% of Democrats, 49% of Republicans, and 40% of all likely voters approved of doing so.

A YouGov poll released on May 21, 2024, and conducted in the key swing states Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, with a highly representative sample of 500 registered Democratic and Independent voters, found that between 74.1% and 82.8% of the respondents supported an immediate and permanent ceasefire, depending on the state, and that between 19.2% and 24.2% of the respondents are less likely to vote for Biden in the 2024 United States presidential election because of his handling of the war in Gaza. Over 40% of the polled voters in each state stated that the combination of imposing a lasting ceasefire and conditioning aid to Israel would make them more likely to vote for Biden.

Israeli officials
Some Israeli government members believed that Biden's support for Israel was not strong enough. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Israel's Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir stated, "Instead of giving us his full backing, Biden is busy with giving humanitarian aid and fuel [to Gaza], which goes to Hamas. If Trump was in power, the U.S. conduct would be completely different." Israel's Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich stated Biden was involved in an anti-Semitic lie for issuing sanctions against violent West Bank settlers. Following comments by Biden in March 2024 that Israel's killing of civilians was "hurting Israel more than helping", the Israeli prime minister Netanyahu stated this was "false" and "wrong". After a speech by Chuck Schumer calling for new elections after the war, Likud released a statement, saying, "Senator Schumer is expected to respect Israel's elected government and not undermine it. This is always true and even more so in wartime."

On 27 March, Ben-Gvir stated, "Biden prefers the line of Rashida Tlaib and Sinwar to the line of Benjamin Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir. I would have expected the president of the United States not to take their line, but rather to take ours." Following reports the U.S. was considering sanctions against an IDF unit charged with human rights abuses, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the sanctions the "height of absurdity and a moral low". Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli stated, "If I were an American citizen with the right to vote, I’d vote for Trump and Republicans". In response to the Biden administration stating it was considering halting weapons transfers to Israel for its Rafah offensive, Ben-Gvir tweeted, "Hamas loves Biden". In June 2024, Netanyahu criticized the Biden administration for what he called a "dramatic drop" in weapons deliveries.

Human rights issues
The United Nations General Assembly on October 27 voted a non-binding resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire to enable relief to enter Gaza; the United States stood with Israel in rejecting the proposal. The previous week, Washington had vetoed a resolution similar to this one at the more powerful UN Security Council.

Progressive Democrats argue that the $14.3 billion package the White House has promised Israel violates the Leahy Act because most of the victims of Israel's attacks on Gaza are civilians. The act forbids the US State and Defence departments from providing security support to foreign governments that are suspected of violating human rights. The act's proponents refer to the increasing number of Gaza residents losing their lives as a result of military operations, the forced relocation of over a million people, and the escalating humanitarian situation following Israeli authorities' cuts to the region's supplies of fuel, food, water, and electricity. Congressman Andre Carson of Indiana wrote to the Guardian, accusing Israel of "war crimes" and citing the Israeli Defence Forces' (IDF) alleged use of white phosphorus and this week's deadly bombing of the Jabalia refugee camp. "I am very concerned that our taxpayer dollars may be used for violations of human rights," Carson wrote. The Biden administration declared earlier this week that it was not imposing any restrictions on Israel's use of the US-supplied weapons. According to Pentagon spokesman Sabrina Singh, "That is really up to the Israel Defense Force to use in how they are going to conduct their operations... But we’re not putting any constraints on that." Usamah Andrabi, Justice Democrats' director of communications – said “I think the Leahy Act should absolutely be looked into right now, when we are seeing gross violations of human rights,” he said. “[The Israelis] are targeting refugee camps, hospitals, mosques all under the guise of self-defense or that one or other member of Hamas is hiding there. It doesn't matter whether Hamas is there or not, because you are targeting civilians. No amount of tax dollars should be justified for that.” Like Carson, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, particularly mentioned the alleged use of white phosphorus, as asserted by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW), as a violation that should bar Israel from getting aid from the US. "Deployment of white phosphorus near populated civilian areas is a war crime," she said.

On December 14, 2023, Senator Bernie Sanders introduced a privileged resolution invoking Section 502(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act, calling on the State Department to investigate Israeli crimes against humanity in its conduct of the war in Gaza. Sanders said that "This resolution is not prescriptive — it does not alter aid to Israel in any way. It simply requests that the State Department report on how our aid is being used." The resolution would freeze US military aid to Israel unless the State Department issues a report within 30 days. The proposal was defeated, 72 to 11, with only Sanders and Democratic Senators Jeff Merkley, Chris Van Hollen, Martin Heinrich, Laphonza Butler, Ed Markey, Ben Ray Luján, Mazie Hirono, Peter Welch and Elizabeth Warren and Republican Rand Paul voting for it. Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) voiced support for the resolution. Among the Senators who voted against the resolution were Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Rick Scott (R-FL), Tom Carper (D-DE), Mike Braun (R-IN), Bob Casey (D-PA), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Independent Angus King of Maine and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) opposed the resolution. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said that resolution "would be a gift to Hamas, a gift to Iran."

Following the veto of another resolution in the UN Council on December 8, international human rights organizations issued the following statement: "By continuing to provide Israel with weapons [and] diplomatic cover as it commits atrocities, including collectively punishing the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza, the US risks complicity in war crimes." Following reports that the U.S. State Department had not found Israel's assurances of following international law credible, William Hartung wrote that State Department staffers' "desires to align U.S. actions with U.S.and international law have been firmly rebuffed by the Biden administration’s leadership team".

Alleged complicity in genocide


Some scholars believe that America is complicit in an alleged genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinians. Lawyers of the Center for Constitutional Rights warned the Biden administration that they could be held liable "for their failure to prevent Israel's unfolding genocide, as well as for their complicity, by encouraging it and materially supporting it." In November 2023, president Joe Biden was nicknamed "Genocide Joe" by critics of his support for Israel. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, described by Israeli media outlet Ynet as "an exceptionally accomplished Israeli advocate," said "Israel's trying to defend itself against a genocidal terrorist threat. So if we're going to start using that word, fine, let's use it appropriately." While suing Joe Biden as the largest provider of military aid to Israel, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) argued that "the United States has the means available to have a deterrent effect on Israeli officials now pursuing genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza." In a declaration in the lawsuit, Genocide scholar William Schabas said that in his view there was a "serious risk of genocide" and that the US was "in breach of its obligation" under the 1948 Genocide Convention and international law. Rashida Tlaib, a Democratic representative of Michigan, accused Joe Biden of supporting the "genocide of the Palestinian people."

Pro-Israel lobby
On 30 October 2023, AIPAC, a leading pro-Israel lobbying group, issued a public critique of the members of Congress who voted against House Resolution 771, which expressed support for Israel. In response, Republican Thomas Massie defended his vote by saying he objected to a broad "open-ended promise of military support," while Democrats Cori Bush, Mark Pocan and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused AIPAC of harming US democracy. On November 1, Ilhan Omar accused AIPAC of running Islamophobic ads against her. On November 2, Rashida Tlaib, who is of Palestinian descent, was the target of a $100,000 TV ad campaign by the Democratic Majority for Israel.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives on December 5 passed a resolution that included language that said the House "clearly and firmly states that anti-Zionism is antisemitism." The organization also condemned the slogan "From the river to the sea," for which Tlaib was censured on November 5. Analysis from The Guardian showed that congress members who were supportive of Israel from the war's start had received an average of $100,000 more from pro-Israel donors than their pro-Palestinian colleagues. Analysis of Federal Election Commission filings showed House Speaker Mike Johnson received $95,000 from AIPAC.

In March 2024, a group of 20 progressive political organizations formed an anti-AIPAC coalition to push back against the lobbyist group's influence on U.S. politics. In response to comments by Senator Chuck Schumer that Israel needed new elections to replace Netanyahu, J Street stated the speech "signals a historic shift from those in the Democratic party who care deeply about Israel's future". Haaretz found that hundreds of fake social media accounts were targeting Democratic Party lawmakers with messages repeating Israeli government accusations relating to UNRWA and Hamas. Haaretz found Israel targeted U.S. lawmakers with an influence campaign, primarily focused on Black politicians. Politico found that AIPAC was the largest source of Republican donors' money spent in 2024 Democratic primary races.

In an early June 2024 interview by the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the Republican U.S. Representative Thomas Massie stated that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee has designated representatives assigned to each Republican member of Congress to ensure that the lawmakers vote for bills that Israel supports. He also questioned why the lobby group and their representatives are not required to register as foreign agents, which would be the case for those advocating on behalf of all other countries.

Weapons transfers
The Biden Administration caused controversy after bypassing Congress on multiple occasions to authorize arms sales to the Israeli military. Unlike the United States' military support for Ukraine, details of weapons sent to Israel have been vague. Leaked details have shown that the U.S. has sent laser-guided missiles, 155mm shells, new army vehicles, among others, at Israel's request.

An investigation by The Guardian found the U.S. government was using special mechanisms to protect Israel from domestic human rights laws to continue sending weapons. Following a trip to Washington D.C. in June 2024, Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant addressed Israeli complaints about slowed arms transfers, stating, "Obstacles were removed and bottlenecks were addressed".

Unnamed officials stated in March 2024 that the U.S. had signed off on an additional 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound bombs. In May 2024, Israel used two U.S. made GBU-39 missiles during the Tel al-Sultan massacre. In June 2024, two U.S. officials stated the United States had transferred ten thousand 2,000-pound bombs and thousands of Hellfire missiles to Israel since 7 October. In late-June 2024, an Israeli official stated the Biden administration would soon transfer a delayed shipment of 500 pound bombs to Israel. In mid-July 2024, a U.S. official confirmed that the United States was resuming its transfers of 500 pound bombs to Israel.

Protests against transfers


Josh Paul, a senior State Department official specializing in arms transfers, resigned after stating the U.S. government continues to sell weapons to Israel despite its record of human rights abuses. "Direct action" tactics were adopted against arms companies in the United States that supplied arms to Israel, including Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Textron, Boeing, L3Harris, Raytheon Technologies and Northrop Grumman. War protesters on university campuses are calling for universities to withdraw any funding from arms manufacturers and companies linked to the Israeli military, including Cisco, Caterpillar and General Electric.

A group of seven U.S. Senators stated that the Biden Administration was in violation of the Foreign Assistance Act, which stipulates that weapons cannot be transferred to governments blocking humanitarian assistance. Senator Chris Van Hollen called on Biden to cease weapons transfers, stating, "We need the president and the Biden administration to push harder and to use all the levers of US policy to ensure people don't die of starvation". In June 2024, the NAACP called on the Biden administration to stop sending weapons to Israel.

The Antisemitism Awareness Act
The "Antisemitism Awareness Act", spearheaded by the Republicans but also backed by many Democrats, passed the United States House of Representatives in a 320–91 vote on May 1, 2024, and proceeded to the Senate. The bill is intended to add the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's approved working definition of antisemitism to title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits "exclusion from participation in, denial of benefits of, and discrimination under federally assisted programs on ground of race, color, or national origin." Democratic Representative Sara Jacobs, who is Jewish, said she opposed the bill because "it fails to effectively address the very real rise of antisemitism, all while defunding colleges and universities across the country and punishing many, if not all, of the non-violent protestors speaking out against the Israeli military’s conduct."

The proposed legislation would broaden the legal definition of antisemitism to include Anti-Zionism, criticism of the policies of the state of Israel, and concerns about Palestinian human rights, by categorizing all of that as hate speech, and it has been criticized for conflating "Judaism with Zionism in assuming that all Jews are Zionists" and automatic citizens of Israel rather than the U.S., thereby severely undermining genuine safety for Jewish citizens. It faces strong opposition from several Democratic lawmakers, Jewish organizations, and free speech advocates, including more than 800 Jewish U.S. academics, who signed a letter calling on Biden not to sign the bill.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the centrist pro-Israel group J Street, said that his organization opposes the bill because it is an "unserious" effort led by Republicans "to continually force votes that divide the Democratic caucus on an issue that shouldn’t be turned into a political football."

The American Civil Liberties Union sees the bill as an attack on First Amendment rights and argues that its "overbroad" definition of antisemitism "could result in colleges and universities suppressing a wide variety of speech critical of Israel or in support of Palestinian rights in an effort to avoid investigations by the Department [of Education] and the potential loss of funding."

Some Republicans have criticized the bill stating that the definition of the bill could have the unintended consequence of making some verses in the New Testament illegal. Matt Gaetz, a Republican representative from Florida, called the bill a “ridiculous hate speech bill.” He went on to say that “this legislation is written without regard for the Constitution, common sense, or even the common understanding of the meaning of words.”

Organizations like the Anti-Defamation League and Conference of Presidents have praised the bill, and it is based on definitions by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance that have been criticized by 100 Israeli and international civil society organizations that wrote to the United Nations Secretary General António Guterres in 2023 urging the UN not to adopt the definitions.

October reactions

 * Eva Borgwardt, the political director of IfNotNow, a progressive Jewish organization, stated: "The White House and many in the US government are clear as they should be that 1,000 Israelis killed is too many, Our question for them is: How many Palestinian deaths are too many?"
 * Alexandra Rojas, the executive director of Justice Democrats, begged the president to take immediate action to stop a ground invasion that would "ensure thousands more civilian casualties, bring us closer to an all-out regional conflict in the Middle East, and thrust the United States into another endless war" in a statement released amid increasing bombing and a communications blackout in Gaza.
 * A Quinnipiac study done following the Israel-Hamas war revealed that 76 percent of voters believed supporting Israel is in the national interest of the United States, and 64 percent approved of sending weapons and military equipment to Israel. This support was more pronounced among older age groups, with 51% of those under 35 disapproving of this action.
 * An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll showed that 48% of millennials and members of Generation Z thought that the US should voice support for Israel.
 * Democrats' opinion of Biden's job dropped by 11 percent during October 2023. According to Gallup, Biden alienated some members of his own party with his swift and decisive show of support for Israel.
 * US Republican Congressman and former aide to Donald Trump, Max Miller, speaking at Fox News stated that Palestine is "about to get eviscerated... to turn that into a parking lot." He had previously called on the Biden administration "to get out of Israel's way and to let Israel do what it needs to do best". He said that there should be "no rules of engagement" during Israel's bombardment of Gaza.

November reactions

 * On November 1, 2023, the Republican Representative, Brian Mast, compared all Palestinians to Nazis on the House floor.
 * A team of legal experts alerted the Biden administration and the ICC prosecutor that the U.S. government might be legally implicated in Israel's ongoing war against the Palestinians.
 * The executive director of DAWN, Sarah Leah Whitson, stated that Biden's funding request "isn't just giving a green light for ethnic cleansing—it's bankrolling it."
 * Barack Obama in an interview emphasized "nobody's hands are clean."
 * The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) sued Joe Biden and two of his cabinet colleagues (On behalf of Palestinian human rights organisations, Palestinians living in Gaza, and US citizens with family in the besieged region) for their failure to stop and aiding and abetting "genocide" in Gaza. US citizen Laila al-Haddad, one of the case's plaintiffs (who has lost five relatives in Gaza as a result of Israel's attacks) said: "I paid for Israel to kill my cousins and my aunt, there's no two ways around it, It was my tax dollars that did that."
 * In November 2023, Bin Laden's "Letter to the American people," published in 2002, went viral on TikTok and other social media. In the letter, Bin Laden denounced numerous acts of American aggression such as U.S. support for Israel, and supported al-Qaeda's war against the U.S. as a defensive struggle. Numerous social media users, including Americans, expressed their opposition to US foreign policy by widely sharing the letter and its contents. The letter was removed from The Guardian website after more than 20 years of being present online in the news outlet's webpage, and TikTok began issuing takedowns of videos featuring the letter.  Reporting in The Washington Post suggested that the virality of the letter had been limited prior to media coverage, having never trended on TikTok, that many of the TikTok videos covering the letter were critical of bin Laden, and that the media coverage had exaggerated its significance and elevated the virality of the letter.

December reactions

 * A December 19 New York Times/Siena College poll found 57 percent of Americans disapproved of Joe Biden's handling of the conflict, with a plurality supporting Israel ending its military actions to protect civilians. Three quarters of 18-to-29 year olds disapproved of Biden's handling, with half saying Israel was intentionally killing civilians and three-fourths saying it was not taking enough precautions for civilians.
 * Polling conducted by Shibley Telhami at the University of Maryland, College Park showed the number of Democrats under 35 less likely to vote for Biden due to the war had grown to 21 percent in just a two-week period.
 * Former Republican Representative Michele Bachmann appearing in The Charlie Kirk Show stated "So, it's time that Gaza ends. The two million people who live there – they are clever assassins. They need to be removed from that land. That land needs to be turned into a national park. And since they're the voluntary mercenaries for Iran, they need to be dropped on the doorstep of Iran. Let Iran deal with those people." She received a round of applause from the audience, while Kirk replied "I look at Israel and Israel says we never want another person into our country that doesn't share our values," Kirk said. "They said they don't want refugees. They don't want any of these people. I want American immigration policy to be like that."

January reactions

 * Tariq Habash, a policy adviser at the US Department of Education resigned, stating, "I cannot represent an administration that systematically dehumanizes Palestinians and enables their ethnic cleansing."
 * Harvard University political scientist Stephen Walt stated, "Biden looks heartless or clueless (or both) and many see him as no better than Trump."
 * The Center for Civilians in Conflict called the failure of Sanders' resolution to investigate Israeli compliance with international law by 72-to-11 "deeply disappointing."
 * Aaron David Miller, a former-State Department official, stated Joe Biden's policies had turned the United States into "Israel's lawyer."
 * According to the poll conducted by the Harvard CAPS–Harris Poll on 17–18 January 2024, 67% of American respondents said that a ceasefire in Gaza should only happen after all Israeli hostages are released and Hamas is removed from power. 74% of American respondents believed that the Hamas attack was genocidal, while 34% of respondents believed that Israel was committing genocide.
 * An Economist/YouGov poll found 49 percent of 18-29-year-olds agreed with the statement that Israel is committing genocide, and 49 percent of registered Democrats also agreeing that Israel was committing genocide.
 * In an op-ed, Bernie Sanders wrote, "The United States must stop asking Israel to do the right thing. It's time to start telling Israel it must do these things or it will lose our support."
 * The Arizona Democratic Party passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire.
 * The cities of San Francisco and Chicago passed resolutions calling for a ceasefire.
 * On January 31, 2024, the Republican Representative Brian Mast said that Palestinian babies are not innocent civilians but "terrorists" who should be killed, that more infrastructure in Gaza needs to be destroyed, and that "It would be better if you kill all the terrorists and kill everyone who are supporters."

February reactions

 * Polling by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found 50 percent of U.S. adults believed that Israel's offensive in Gaza had gone too far.
 * Joe Biden faced large protests during campaign stops in Michigan, with one demonstrator stating, "There is nothing that will ever make me vote for a genocidal president, ever."
 * An NBC News poll found only 15 percent of under-35-year-old voters approved of Biden's approach to the war, with 70 percent disapproving.
 * The Minneapolis City Council overrode a mayoral veto to pass a ceasefire resolution.
 * U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib called Netanyahu a "genocidal maniac" during a speech in Congress.
 * CAIR criticized Biden for failing to protect U.S. citizens killed by Israel, including Tawfiq Ajaq and Shireen Abu Akleh.
 * A survey by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding found a majority in the U.S. supported a ceasefire.
 * The council of bishops of the African Methodist Episcopal Church called on the U.S. to immediately cease funding Israel or providing other support, stating, "After this torture, they plan to murder them. The United States of America will have likely paid for the weapons they use. This must not be allowed to happen."
 * The director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Nihad Awad, stated, "President Biden should stop acting like Benjamin Netanyahu's defense lawyer and start acting like the President of the United States".
 * Professor Stephen Zunes stated Biden's Gaza policy was even more unpopular amongst young voters than Nixon's Vietnam War policy had been in the 1970s. 74.Rally.AaronBushnellVigil.WDC.26February2024 (53561571421).jpg held outside of the Israeli embassy on February 26, 2024]]
 * On 25 February 2024, Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old serviceman of the United States Air Force, committed an act of self-immolation outside the front gate of the Embassy of Israel in Washington, D.C. in protest of the ongoing US support of the war. He declared that he "will no longer be complicit in genocide" before dousing himself in flammable liquid and setting himself on fire. He repeatedly shouted "Free Palestine" as he was burning. After first responders extinguished the flames, he was taken to a local hospital in critical condition where he later died.  Commenting on the incident, Pentagon Press Secretary Patrick S. Ryder reaffirmed US support for Israel's operations.
 * UCLA professor Dov Waxman stated, "It is telling that most American voters – both Democrats and Republicans – don't approve, according to the surveys, of the way that President Biden's been handling this war".

March reactions

 * Former-Ambassador Robert Stephen Ford stated that the U.S. being forced to deliver aid by airdrop was the "worst humilitation" of the U.S. by Israel he had ever seen, aside from the USS Liberty incident.
 * A Gallup poll found positive opinions of Israel dropped from 64 percent to 38 percent amongst people aged 18-to-34.
 * A poll by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding found that Muslim Americans were eight times more likely to support a candidate who called for a ceasefire.
 * A CAIR poll found 72 percent of U.S. Muslims disapproved of Biden's stance on the war.
 * A CEPR poll found 52% of Americans supported ending arms transfers to Israel.
 * Protesters blocked Pennsylvania Avenue in protest of Biden's 2024 State of the Union Address, with one demonstrator stating, "No more genocide with our tax dollars".
 * The Arab American Institute condemned Congress' ban on UNRWA funding, stating, "Our political process has chosen to cut US funding to literally the only entity that can address the level of suffering and scale of suffering that's happening in Gaza right now".
 * In an interview with Fox News on March 5, 2024, the former president and presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stated that Joe Biden "dumped Israel" due to being overly influenced by pro-Palestinian protests, that "The Democrats are very bad for Israel," that he supports Israel's ongoing offensive on Gaza in which Israel has to "finish the problem", and that the Biden administration "got soft". Trump's campaign also said that, if elected again, he would bar Gaza residents from entering the U.S. as part of an expanded travel ban, which commentators has viewed as a call to continue and "double down" on genocidal acts. In another interview with Fox News, Benjamin Netanyahu said "I appreciate President Trump's tremendous support for Israel."
 * Donald Trump later also stated that "Israel has to be very careful because you're losing a lot of the world, you're losing a lot of support."
 * Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, senior foreign policy adviser under Trump's presidency, stated that "Gaza's waterfront property could be very valuable", that Israel should bulldoze an area of the Negev desert and move Palestinians there, and that the Palestinians having their own state is "a super bad idea" that "would essentially be rewarding an act of terror".
 * In a town hall meeting on March 25, 2024, the Republican US House representative Tim Walberg of Michigan stated that Palestinian civilians should have nuclear weapons used against them, "like Nagasaki and Hiroshima" (the Japanese cities where the US dropped atomic bombs at the end of World War Two, killing hundreds of thousands of people) in order to “Get it over quick.”
 * A group of eight Democrat Senators led by Bernie Sanders, Jeff Merkley, and Chris Van Hollen issued an official letter to President Joe Biden, calling on him to "enforce federal law" by requiring Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "to stop restricting humanitarian aid access to Gaza or forfeit U.S. military aid to Israel" as "The severe humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza is nearly unprecedented in modern history" and "The United States should not provide military assistance to any country that interferes with U.S. humanitarian assistance." They cited the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act, which states that "no assistance" shall be provided under that law or the Arms Export Control Act to any country that restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance. "Stopping American humanitarian aid is in violation of the law. That should be clear. No more money to Netanyahu's war machine to kill Palestinian children," Sanders said.

April reactions

 * New York City Mayor Eric Adams opposed a ceasefire in Gaza.
 * Twenty-eight of the 61 nominated authors withdrew their books from consideration in the annual PEN America Awards ceremony as they condemned America's Pen for failing to strongly condemn what they called the genocide in Palestine.
 * Student protesters called on Columbia University to financially divest from any company with business ties to the Israeli government, including Microsoft, Google and Amazon.
 * Portland State University decided to temporarily suspend donations from Boeing following student protests.

May and June reactions

 * On May 22, 2024, William Lawrence, an international relations professor at American University, stated, "From a Palestinian perspective, it’s absolutely clear the US is doing next to nothing to save them from the onslaught of the Israeli forces".
 * In June 2024, Marwan Bishara, the senior analyst at Al Jazeera English, stated it was "surrealistic" to hear the U.S. Secretary of State describe conditions in Gaza as if people there "were not killed by American ammunition, as if the United States did not block every attempt at an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the past three months."

Outside the U.S.

 * Iranian officials claimed on October 30 that attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and other parts of the region were the consequence of "wrong American policies," which included Washington's backing of Israel in its war against Hamas.
 * Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the commander of the Houthi movement in Yemen, declared on October 10 that his organisation would retaliate by using missiles and drones in addition to other military measures if the United States got involved in the Gaza conflict.
 * According to Agnès Callamard, Secretary-General of Amnesty International, in the face of a staggering death toll, the US vetoing another UN Security Council ceasefire resolution "displays a callous disregard for civilian suffering." In addition, Washington "has brazenly wielded and weaponized its veto to strongarm the UN Security Council, further undermining its credibility and ability to live up to its mandate to maintain international peace and security," according to the statement.
 * In February 2024, Callamard responded to the U.S. vetoing another ceasefire resolution at the UN Security Council stating, "When the US could do the right thing: protect Palestinians against serious risks of genocide; respect international law and universality; prevent massive killings and sufferings – it chose the opposite path".
 * The executive director of Doctors Without Borders, Avril Benoit, states: "By vetoing this resolution, the US stands alone in casting its vote against humanity. The US veto stands in sharp contrast to the values it professes to uphold. By continuing to provide diplomatic cover for the ongoing atrocities in Gaza, the US is signaling that international humanitarian law can be applied selectively — and that the lives of some people matter less than the lives of others …. The US veto makes it complicit in the carnage in Gaza."
 * International rights groups said in a statement:"By continuing to provide military and diplomatic support to Israel as it commits atrocities, including the collective punishment of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, the US is complicit in war crimes."
 * In response to Biden stating Israel's actions were "over the top," the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell stated, "If you believe that too many people are being killed, maybe you should provide less arms in order to prevent so many people being killed."
 * A new Pew Research poll shows that most foreign countries disapprove of the way the US president is handling Israel's war in Gaza.