Pentagon’s inspector general will audit Israel’s use of US weaponry

By Tony Capaccio Bloomberg News

2 months ago

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, right, and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, second from l ... — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, right, and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, second from left, sit down for a meeting at the Pentagon in Washington, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. The two, who have been in weekly contact since the Hamas attack on Israel in October, are expected to discuss Israeli operations in Gaza, humanitarian efforts in the region, and tension with Hezbollah in Lebanon. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

The Pentagon’s inspector general has begun an audit of Israel’s “proper use, storage and physical security” of American armaments, including missiles, drones and night vision devices.

The audit will be conducted under the Pentagon’s enhanced monitoring process of “accounting for sensitive defense articles” provided to foreign allies, the inspector general’s office said in a news release.

The audit, intended to assess the Defense Department’s oversight of military aid to Israel, will unfold amid the continuing Middle East war, which began on Oct. 7, 2023, with a Hamas-led terrorist attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people.

But Mollie Halpern, a spokesperson for the inspector general’s office, said that the audit won’t review allegations from human rights groups that Israel has improperly used U.S.-supplied munitions against targets in civilian areas.

More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the military campaign, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.

The inspector general’s announcement said it had previously audited the so-called end-use of American systems provided to Ukraine and Iraq and “found significant challenges” regarding that oversight.

In May, the U.S. paused delivery of about 3,500 bombs to Israel — including 2,000-pound explosives that could cause massive damage in the densely packed southern Gaza city of Rafah — amid mounting frustration over the conduct of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s campaign against Hamas, the Iran-backed group designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and other nations.

But the Pentagon last year quietly escalated military aid to Israel, delivering on requests that included more laser-guided missiles for its Apache gunship fleet, as well as 155mm shells, night-vision devices, bunker-buster munitions and new vehicles, according to an internal Defense Department list.

The inspector general’s office said in an Oct. 16 memo, released with the news release this week, that “we will perform the audit at the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the U.S. Central Command, and the Office of Defense Cooperation-Israel.”

It’s unclear what effect, if any, the new audit will have on U.S.-Israel relations considering that it will take months to complete, won’t deal with human rights allegations and will probably contain major redactions in the findings released publicly.