The United States does not have evidence that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza as it carries out its war against Palestinian Islamist terror group Hamas, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told a Senate hearing on Tuesday.
"We don't have evidence of that," Austin told the Senate Armed Services Committee, when asked about accusations that Israel is committing genocide in its war against Hamas in Gaza.
Hamas' October 7 attack and massacre in southern Israel killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians. Israel's subsequent air and ground campaign on Hamas-run Gaza has displaced nearly all its 2.3 million population and led to allegations of genocide.
3 View gallery
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant late last month in Washington
( Photo: Defense Ministry )
The United States is Israel's biggest military supporter but has pressed it to do more to help civilians in Gaza.
Austin also told the hearing that a deadly, mass famine in Gaza would likely accelerate violence and ensure a long-term conflict.
Aid agencies have complained that Israel is not ensuring enough access to food, medicine and other needed humanitarian supplies. The European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has accused it of using starvation as a weapon of war.
Asked by a lawmaker what the impact would be from a deadly mass famine, Austin said: "It will accelerate violence, and it will have the effect of ensuring that there's a long-term conflict."
"It doesn't have to happen," Austin added. "We should continue to do everything we can, and we are doing this, to encourage the Israelis to provide humanitarian assistance."
Israel has said aid is moving into Gaza more quickly, but the amount is disputed and the United Nations says it remains much less than the bare minimum to meet humanitarian needs.
Austin said it remained to be seen if the increase in aid could be deepened and sustained.
He added that an Israeli failure to separate the Palestinian people from Palestinian Islamist terror group Hamas "would just create more terrorism."
In a call last week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. President Joe Biden threatened to condition U.S. support for Israel's offensive in Gaza on its taking concrete steps to protect aid workers and civilians.
It was the first time that Biden, a Democrat and a staunch supporter of Israel, has sought to leverage U.S. aid to influence Israeli military behavior.
The president has come under enormous pressure from within his Democratic party to do more to address the humanitarian catastrophe for Palestinian civilians from Israeli attacks.
Israel said 419 trucks - the highest since the October 7 attack - entered Gaza on Monday, though the UN said many were only half full because of Israeli inspection rules, which include removing items that can be used by terror groups to harm Israel.
COGAT, the Israeli military department responsible for aid transfers, denies it is hindering humanitarian relief into Gaza, saying there is no limit on supplies for civilians and blaming delays on the United Nations, which it says is inefficient.
3 View gallery
Truck with GAza aid waits at Kerem Shalom Crossing to enter the strip
(Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
"Yesterday alone enough food went into Gaza to feed every single person there. The U.N. fails to distribute it and Hamas steals it," said David Mencer, spokesperson at Israel's National Public Diplomacy Directorate.
Irael said on Friday it would open the closed Erez crossing point into northern Gaza from Israel for aid supplies, approve more Jordanian aid through the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south and temporarily allow its Ashdod port to be used for aid.
Erez, the main crossing into northern Gaza before the war, has been closed since it was destroyed by Palestinian terrorists on October 7. Israel imposed a total blockade at the start of the war, but has gradually allowed in aid, first through the Rafah crossing from Egypt and then the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel itself.