“There is a linkage between every single bomb that is dropped in Gaza and the U.S.,” one former official said.
By Sharon Zhang ,
January 13, 2025
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a UN Security Council meeting on Sudan at the UN headquarters in New York on December 19, 2024.
Former U.S. officials have spoken out about the Biden administration’s deep complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza, highlighting that the assault would not be possible without U.S. assistance and that the State Department is censoring those within the agency who speak out against it.
In a new interview with “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday, Josh Paul, who formerly oversaw arms shipment approvals within the State Department, said that the U.S. is implicated in every bombing in the Gaza Strip. Paul resigned from his position shortly after the genocide began on October 7, 2023, citing the U.S.’s staunch support of Israel as it carpet bombed Gaza.
“Most of the bombs come from America. Most of the technology comes from America. And all of the fighter jets, all of Israel’s fixed-wing fleet comes from America,” Paul said. “There is a linkage between every single bomb that is dropped in Gaza and the U.S. because every single bomb that is dropped is dropped from an American-made plane.”
Just according to publicly reported figures, the U.S. sent Israel $18 billion in military assistance in the first year of the genocide — a record figure for U.S. aid to Israel. Last year, the Biden administration also announced a $20 billion sale of more weapons to Israel, with $18.8 billion of the sale representing F-15 fighter jets and jet parts.
Then, this month, the Biden administration announced yet another planned sale of thousands of weapons to Israel, totalling $8 billion, including bombs and artillery shells — even as human rights groups like Amnesty International are warning that Israel is committing genocide and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Experts have long said that U.S. officials are risking complicity in these alleged crimes by sending Israel weapons without red lines.
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Former U.S. officials have spoken out about the Biden administration’s deep complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza, highlighting that the assault would not be possible without U.S. assistance and that the State Department is censoring those within the agency who speak out against it.
In a new interview with “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday, Josh Paul, who formerly oversaw arms shipment approvals within the State Department, said that the U.S. is implicated in every bombing in the Gaza Strip. Paul resigned from his position shortly after the genocide began on October 7, 2023, citing the U.S.’s staunch support of Israel as it carpet bombed Gaza.
“Most of the bombs come from America. Most of the technology comes from America. And all of the fighter jets, all of Israel’s fixed-wing fleet comes from America,” Paul said. “There is a linkage between every single bomb that is dropped in Gaza and the U.S. because every single bomb that is dropped is dropped from an American-made plane.”
Just according to publicly reported figures, the U.S. sent Israel $18 billion in military assistance in the first year of the genocide — a record figure for U.S. aid to Israel. Last year, the Biden administration also announced a $20 billion sale of more weapons to Israel, with $18.8 billion of the sale representing F-15 fighter jets and jet parts.
Then, this month, the Biden administration announced yet another planned sale of thousands of weapons to Israel, totalling $8 billion, including bombs and artillery shells — even as human rights groups like Amnesty International are warning that Israel is committing genocide and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Experts have long said that U.S. officials are risking complicity in these alleged crimes by sending Israel weapons without red lines.
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The children are among at least 332 Palestinians killed by Israeli attacks since the beginning of the year. By Sharon Zhang , Truthout January 8, 2025
“60 Minutes” aired footage from May in which American shell casings, printed with “U.S.A.” on the side, are present all over Gaza. The footage showed how Palestinians have even resorted to using the massive ammunition casings to prop up makeshift tents and clotheslines in displacement camps.
“Across this now-decimated 25 mile long strip of land, America’s stamp is everywhere,” the program’s host said.
Israel has destroyed the vast majority of Gaza’s infrastructure in over 15 months of genocide. The official death count, as tallied by Gaza health officials, is over 46,000 people, but researchers have estimated in an article published in The Lancet last week that the true toll from violent death alone could be well over 70,000 people.
Meanwhile, Israel’s humanitarian blockade is causing an unknown number of deaths due to starvation and disease. Experts, advocates and lawmakers have long said that the blockade violates international humanitarian law and renders the Israeli military ineligible to receive U.S. assistance, but the U.S. is reportedly purposefully sweeping aside these reports in order to continue sending Israel weapons.
Former U.S. Diplomat Hala Rharrit said in an interview with “60 Minutes” that she was actively censored by U.S. officials when she spoke up about Gaza. She said that, in daily reports she sent to higher ups, she “would show the complicity that was indisputable,” like images of U.S. bomb shells next to dead Palestinian children.
“When you tried to speak out, vocalize what you saw happening in Gaza, you feel like you were told to shut up?” asked “60 Minutes”’s Cecilia Vega.
“Yes,” responded Rharrit, who also resigned shortly after the genocide began in October 2023. “I would show images of children that were starved to death. In one incident, I was basically berated [by a superior] — ‘don’t put that image in there. We don’t want to see it. We don’t want to see that the children are starving to death.’”
Paul similarly said that U.S. officials are operating as though Israel’s atrocities in Gaza are a nonissue and should not be cited to interrupt the flow of weapons.
“After October 7th, there was no space for debate or discussion,” said Paul. “I was part of email chains where there were very clear directions saying, ‘Here are the latest requests from Israel. These need to be approved by 3 p.m.’”
In 60 Minutes Interview, Ex-State Dept. Officials Spotlight US Complicity in Gaza Assault
"There is a linkage between every single bomb that is dropped in Gaza and the U.S.," said one former official.
A former State Department official Hala Rharrit speaks during the press conference held by doctors who returned from Gaza at the Council on American-Islamic Relations headquarters in Washington DC, United States on December 9, 2024.
(Photo: Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Eloise Goldsmith
Jan 13, 2025
COMMON DREAMS
In a Sunday interview with 60 Minutes, former State Department officials spoke with journalist Cecilia Vega and offered a window into how the United States has greased the wheels of carnage in Gaza.
Hala Rharrit, an American diplomat who spent 18 years working on human rights and counterterrorism in the Middle East and elsewhere, left her post last spring—becoming the first State Department diplomat to publicly resign over the Biden administration's policies backing Israel's siege on Gaza, according to Democracy Now!.
Rharrit would send daily reports to senior leadership in Washington containing "gruesome images and her warnings," according to 60 Minutes. "I would show the complicity that was indisputable. Fragments of U.S. bombs next to massacres of... mostly children," Rharrit recounted.
Here's what else Rharrit had to say:
Cecilia Vega: When you tried to speak out, vocalize what you saw.... like you were told to shut up?
Hala Rharrit: Yes. I would show images of children that were starved to death. In one incident, I was basically berated, "Don't put that image in there. We don't wanna see it. We don't wanna see that the children are starving to death."
Cecilia Vega: Who told you that?
Hala Rharrit: A colleague.
The United States has offered largely unchecked support for Israel since Hamas fighters attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, prompting Israel to launch attacks on the Gaza Strip. The U.S. has provided Israel with at least $17.9 billion in military aid to its ally in the Middle East, and in early January the State Department informed Congress of a planned $8 billion arms sale. Local health officials in Gaza say the death toll in the enclave stands at over 46,000. However, a recently published peer-reviewed analysis estimates that Israel's assault on Gaza had actually killed 64,260 people between October 7, 2023 and June 30, 2024—a figure significantly higher than the one reported by the enclave's health ministry.
Meanwhile, multiple human rights organizations have said that Israel's conduct in Gaza constitutes genocide or acts of genocide.
60 Minutes tallies that 13 officials in the White House, Army, and State Department have publicly resigned in protest.
"There is a linkage between every single bomb that is dropped in Gaza and the U.S. because every single bomb that is dropped is dropped from an American-made plane," Josh Paul, a former director in the State Department's Bureau of Political - Military Affairs who resigned shortly after October 7, told 60 Minutes.
"After October 7th, there was no space for debate or discussion. I was part of email chains where there were very clear directions saying, 'Here are the latest requests from Israel. These need to be approved by 3:00 pm,'" said Paul, who was involved in signing off on U.S. security assistance to other countries.
Andrew Miller, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for Israeli-Palestinian affairs, resigned last June to spend more time with his family, but has since gone public with concerns about U.S.'s role in the war—the highest ranking official to do so thus far, according to 60 Minutes.
In reference to 2,000-pound bombs that the U.S. has supplied to Israel, Miller said that "the Israelis were using those bombs in some instances to target one or two individuals in densely packed areas. And in enough instances, we saw that was in question, how Israel was using it. And those weapons were suspended."
The U.S. suspended a shipment of 2,000 pound bombs to Israel in spring 2024, though in general weapons have continued to flow.
Reacting to Miller’s comments that Israel bombed densely packed areas, one observer wrote Sunday: “60 Minutes is finally exposing the supply chain of genocide.”
"There is a linkage between every single bomb that is dropped in Gaza and the U.S.," said one former official.
A former State Department official Hala Rharrit speaks during the press conference held by doctors who returned from Gaza at the Council on American-Islamic Relations headquarters in Washington DC, United States on December 9, 2024.
(Photo: Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Eloise Goldsmith
Jan 13, 2025
COMMON DREAMS
In a Sunday interview with 60 Minutes, former State Department officials spoke with journalist Cecilia Vega and offered a window into how the United States has greased the wheels of carnage in Gaza.
Hala Rharrit, an American diplomat who spent 18 years working on human rights and counterterrorism in the Middle East and elsewhere, left her post last spring—becoming the first State Department diplomat to publicly resign over the Biden administration's policies backing Israel's siege on Gaza, according to Democracy Now!.
Rharrit would send daily reports to senior leadership in Washington containing "gruesome images and her warnings," according to 60 Minutes. "I would show the complicity that was indisputable. Fragments of U.S. bombs next to massacres of... mostly children," Rharrit recounted.
Here's what else Rharrit had to say:
Cecilia Vega: When you tried to speak out, vocalize what you saw.... like you were told to shut up?
Hala Rharrit: Yes. I would show images of children that were starved to death. In one incident, I was basically berated, "Don't put that image in there. We don't wanna see it. We don't wanna see that the children are starving to death."
Cecilia Vega: Who told you that?
Hala Rharrit: A colleague.
The United States has offered largely unchecked support for Israel since Hamas fighters attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, prompting Israel to launch attacks on the Gaza Strip. The U.S. has provided Israel with at least $17.9 billion in military aid to its ally in the Middle East, and in early January the State Department informed Congress of a planned $8 billion arms sale. Local health officials in Gaza say the death toll in the enclave stands at over 46,000. However, a recently published peer-reviewed analysis estimates that Israel's assault on Gaza had actually killed 64,260 people between October 7, 2023 and June 30, 2024—a figure significantly higher than the one reported by the enclave's health ministry.
Meanwhile, multiple human rights organizations have said that Israel's conduct in Gaza constitutes genocide or acts of genocide.
60 Minutes tallies that 13 officials in the White House, Army, and State Department have publicly resigned in protest.
"There is a linkage between every single bomb that is dropped in Gaza and the U.S. because every single bomb that is dropped is dropped from an American-made plane," Josh Paul, a former director in the State Department's Bureau of Political - Military Affairs who resigned shortly after October 7, told 60 Minutes.
"After October 7th, there was no space for debate or discussion. I was part of email chains where there were very clear directions saying, 'Here are the latest requests from Israel. These need to be approved by 3:00 pm,'" said Paul, who was involved in signing off on U.S. security assistance to other countries.
Andrew Miller, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for Israeli-Palestinian affairs, resigned last June to spend more time with his family, but has since gone public with concerns about U.S.'s role in the war—the highest ranking official to do so thus far, according to 60 Minutes.
In reference to 2,000-pound bombs that the U.S. has supplied to Israel, Miller said that "the Israelis were using those bombs in some instances to target one or two individuals in densely packed areas. And in enough instances, we saw that was in question, how Israel was using it. And those weapons were suspended."
The U.S. suspended a shipment of 2,000 pound bombs to Israel in spring 2024, though in general weapons have continued to flow.
Reacting to Miller’s comments that Israel bombed densely packed areas, one observer wrote Sunday: “60 Minutes is finally exposing the supply chain of genocide.”
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