WASHINGTON— U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) released the following statement on the State Department's report to Congress on Israel's compliance with National Security Memorandum (NSM-20):

“The National Security Memorandum 20 is an important tool to ensure U.S. security assistance overseas is used in compliance with international law, including international humanitarian law. The report produced by the Biden Administration contains detailed assessments about Israel’s conduct in its war against Hamas. Those assessments are a tough, honest look at the challenges Israel faces in waging war in Gaza as well as many of the mistakes Israel has made in its campaign, which have resulted in far too many civilian casualties and far too little humanitarian aid.

“But I’m disappointed that ultimately the Administration failed to take a position in many cases and make the difficult determinations required, including whether Israel violated international law on mitigating civilian harm or facilitating humanitarian aid. It is true that in the weeks leading up to the report, the amount of humanitarian aid into Gaza had begun to tick up. But today the aid has once again virtually stopped flowing, demonstrating that Israel has not taken the necessary steps under U.S. and international law to protect civilians during this conflict.

“I believe this report should have gone further and I urge the administration to invoke the clause to refresh the credibility of assurances from Israel within 45 days so that we can continue to press Israel to improve the conduct of its operations against Hamas and efforts to free the hostages.”

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