GAZA, (Palestine Foundation Information Center ) Human Rights Watch (HRW) has held US military personnel legally responsible for assisting the Israeli army in committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip, accusing the US army of being directly involved in operations against Palestinians.
“Direct participation by US forces in military operations in Gaza since October 2023, including by providing intelligence for Israeli strikes and conducting extensive coordination and planning, has made the United States a party to the conflict between Israel and Palestinian armed groups. As a warring party, US forces could be jointly responsible for participating in laws-of-war violations by Israeli forces, and US personnel implicated could be held individually responsible for war crimes,” HRW explained in a press release on Wednesday.
“Under international humanitarian law, the ongoing hostilities between Israel and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza are a non-international armed conflict. International law does not set out specific criteria for determining when a country assisting another country in a non-international armed conflict itself becomes a party to that conflict, though direct participation in combat operations is a clear example,” HRW underlined.
“US officials have acknowledged that since hostilities between Palestinian armed groups and Israel began on October 7, 2023, the United States has provided Israel with extensive actionable intelligence used to strike targets in Gaza, along with extensive coordination, planning, and intelligence gathering with Israeli forces to target Hamas leaders,” HRW said.
“Both the Biden and second Trump administrations have provided massive arms sales and other security assistance to Israel,” HRW affirmed.
“According to the Center for International Policy’s Security Assistance Monitor, the United States has transferred at least $4.17 billion in arms to Israel between October 2023 and May 2025. The Security Assistance Monitor also assessed, based on State Department reports, that there had been, as of April 2025, 751 active Foreign Military Sales cases with Israel, valued at $39.2 billion. This was despite being aware that Israeli forces were repeatedly committing serious laws-of-war violations, including war crimes,” the rights group elaborated.
