Internal warnings drafted by US Agency for International Development (USAID) staff in early 2024 describing northern Gaza as an “apocalyptic wasteland” were prevented from reaching senior levels of the US government, despite detailing extreme humanitarian devastation following "Israel’s" military assault, Reuters reported on Friday.
The suppressed February 2024 cable, compiled three months after the start of the genocide, drew on United Nations fact-finding missions conducted in January and February. According to former US officials and documents reviewed by Reuters, the report contained graphic firsthand accounts of mass casualties, abandoned bodies, exposed human remains, and what officials described as “catastrophic human needs, particularly for food and safe drinking water.”
The cable was blocked from wider circulation by US Ambassador to "Israel" Jack Lew and his deputy, Stephanie Hallett, who argued the assessment lacked sufficient balance, sources familiar with the matter said. Neither Lew nor Hallett responded to requests for comment.
Gaza warnings suppressed
Former USAID officials told Reuters the report was one of at least five cables sent in early 2024 documenting the rapid collapse of health services, sanitation systems, food access, and social order for Palestinians in Gaza. All five, they said, were either restricted or prevented from reaching senior policymakers.
Three former US officials said the descriptions were unusually stark and likely would have commanded immediate attention had they been allowed to circulate within former President Joe Biden’s administration. They added that the cables could have intensified scrutiny of a National Security Memorandum issued that month, which conditioned US military and intelligence assistance on "Israel’s" adherence to international law.
“While cables weren’t the only means of providing humanitarian information ... they would have represented an acknowledgement by the ambassador of the reality of the situation in Gaza,” said Andrew Hall, then a crisis operations specialist for USAID.
Embassy controlled cables
According to Reuters, the US Embassy in occupied al-Quds exercised control over both the language and distribution of most Gaza-related cables, including those originating from other embassies in the region. Former officials said Lew and Hallett frequently argued that the information contained in USAID reports was already available through media coverage.
Although senior US officials were broadly aware of worsening conditions through National Security Council reporting, former officials said restricted access to Gaza meant policymakers were not regularly receiving detailed, firsthand humanitarian assessments. Aid organizations had meanwhile been warning of imminent famine risks.
“Simply put, humanitarian expertise was repeatedly sidelined, blocked, ignored,” a former member of USAID’s Middle East disaster response team told Reuters.
One approved, one blocked
In contrast, the embassy did authorize the wider circulation of a separate January 2024 cable on food insecurity across Gaza, which later appeared in the president’s daily briefing. That report described rising famine risks in the north and severe food shortages elsewhere in the enclave, surprising senior officials by how rapidly conditions had deteriorated.
The February cable on northern Gaza relied on assessments by UN agencies, including UNRWA, the UN Mine Action Service, and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. While it cleared USAID and State Department Palestinian Affairs offices, Hallett ultimately barred its broader release, a move that former officials said would not have occurred without Lew’s approval.
Mounting deaths
The war on Gaza has resulted in more than 71,000 Palestinian deaths, according to Gaza health authorities.
Despite repeated ceasefire efforts, the fighting has continued, deepening humanitarian suffering and political divisions within the United States over its support for "Israel".
Source:Websites
