On December 18, 2024, five Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank, along with a U.S. citizen, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government, aiming to halt military aid to Israel due to alleged serious human rights violations.
The lawsuit, announced on Tuesday, accuses the State Department of failing to enforce a federal law that prohibits funding foreign military units involved in egregious violations such as extrajudicial killings and torture.
The complaint states, "The State Department's deliberate failure to apply the Leahy Law is particularly shocking in light of the unprecedented escalation of [serious human rights violations] by Israel since the outbreak of the Gaza war on October 7, 2023."
The ongoing Israeli offensive in Gaza has reportedly resulted in over 45,000 Palestinian deaths since early October 2023, predominantly among women and children. The United Nations and leading human rights organizations have accused the Israeli military of committing war crimes, including genocide.
The lead plaintiff, identified by the pseudonym Gaza Hope, is a teacher from Gaza who has been forcibly displaced seven times since the war began and lost 20 family members in Israeli attacks. She stated, "My suffering and the unimaginable loss my family has endured would significantly lessen if the U.S. stopped military aid to Israeli units committing egregious human rights violations."
The U.S. State Department has refrained from commenting on pending lawsuits.
The case revolves around the Leahy Law, a federal regulation that prohibits U.S. government funding to foreign military units when there is "credible information" indicating their involvement in serious human rights abuses. According to a fact sheet from the State Department, these abuses include torture, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and rape.
Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at DAWN, an American non-profit organization promoting democracy and human rights in the Arab world, stated that DAWN is urging the U.S. government to comply with the law.
For months, lawyers and human rights advocates have urged the Biden administration to restrict aid to the Israeli military amid numerous reports of abuses against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
Human rights groups have documented the use of U.S.-made weapons by Israel in several lethal attacks in Gaza, including indiscriminate strikes that killed dozens of Palestinian civilians.
Palestinians in the West Bank have also experienced a rise in deadly Israeli military violence and settler attacks since the onset of the Gaza war, with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reporting 770 Palestinian deaths there from October 7, 2023, to the end of November 2024.
The U.S. provides Israel with at least $3.8 billion in military aid annually, and researchers at Brown University in Rhode Island recently estimated that the Biden administration has provided an additional $17.9 billion since the start of the Gaza war.
Observers noted that cutting this aid could impede Israel's military operations.