How Biden admin diplomats in Israel blocked early warning of ‘Apocalyptic Wasteland’ in Gaza

“There are a lot of innocent people who are starving, a lot of innocent people who are in trouble and dying, and it’s got to stop,” Biden told reporters at the White House in February 2024, describing Israel’s actions in Gaza as “over the top.”

In January 2024, the embassy did approve the wider distribution of a cable about food insecurity throughout Gaza, and the information made it into the president’s daily briefing – a compilation by the intelligence community of the most important national security information and analysis.

The cable, which was described to Reuters, looked at the risk of famine in northern Gaza and the potential for severe food insecurity in the rest of the strip because of a lack of food deliveries. It was one of the first detailed reports from USAID into the rapidly deteriorating situation inside Gaza, including growing food insecurity in the south of the enclave.

That cable caught the attention of several senior White House officials, including deputy national security adviser Jon Finer, who told colleagues he was surprised by how quickly the food situation had deteriorated, according to two of the former US officials.

Finer did not respond to a request for comment.

But senior US officials were not receiving regular first-hand accounts because of restricted access to the area, six former US officials said.

“Simply put, humanitarian expertise was repeatedly sidelined, blocked, ignored,” a former member of USAID’s Middle East disaster response team said.

Until the USAID was reduced to a skeleton staff inside the State Department by the Trump administration, US officials relied heavily on the agency’s reporting in situations where diplomatic presence and human intelligence were scarce.

Because USAID has had no staff inside Gaza since 2019, much of that reporting drew on information provided by UN agencies – including UNRWA, the Palestinian refugee agency – and international aid organisations funded by the US government.

That dependence on third parties contributed to some Biden officials’ skepticism of USAID reporting, three former US officials told Reuters.

Biden’s Middle East envoy Brett McGurk and his aides often asked in meetings if the USAID had verified the information and why it diverged, sometimes drastically, from Israel’s version of events, the three former officials said. McGurk declined to comment.

In several instances, the former officials said White House officials pushed back on USAID analyses that suggested civilians were starving in Gaza.

The skepticism about the US government’s humanitarian reporting stirred tensions inside the National Security Council and angered USAID officials working on the Gaza portfolio.

“The question was always like ‘where are all the skinny kids?’” one of the former officials said.

US official framed, edited cables

The two former officials said Hallett sometimes asked for cables to be reframed or edited. She questioned the necessity of one cable, which focused on health, arguing that much of the information was in the public domain.

Two of the former Biden officials also said Hallett sometimes viewed USAID disaster team cables as too sensitive to be published during contentious negotiations on a ceasefire and hostage deal.

The February 2024 cable about northern Gaza drew on a fact-finding mission by UNRWA, the UN Mine Action Service, and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, according to two former U.S. officials and documents reviewed by Reuters.

The cable cleared USAID’s occupied West Bank and Gaza mission offices and the State Department’s Office of Palestinian Affairs, before Hallett barred wider distribution, according to documents reviewed by Reuters.

Cables only needed one sign-off from the head office of the embassy, and Hallett would not have barred its distribution without Lew’s knowledge or approval, two former officials said.