The Biden administration says a U.S.-Israel panel to look into reports of civilian harm from the war in Gaza will meet for the first time in early December, missing by more than a month a U.S. call for the channel to be set up by the end of October.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Tuesday that the upcoming meeting had been agreed to after much discussion between U.S. and Israeli officials on specific incidents and reports of civilian casualties involving American-made or -supplied weapons.
"The purpose of this channel is to inform the ongoing work that the State Department has to make assessments about the use of U.S.-provided weapons," Miller told reporters. "It's to gather information about incidents that have been raised that are cause of concern or cause of questions."
He said the information gathered through that channel will inform U.S. policy decisions about any response to potential violations of international humanitarian law in the conflict that has been raging since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, which led to its retaliatory offensives in Gaza.
Experts say famine may already have set in in northern Gaza, where Israel has been waging a weekslong offensive that has killed hundreds of people and driven tens of thousands from their homes.
