State Department official resigns amid Israel-Gaza war; says US 'repeating same mistakes'

A US Department of State official submitted his resignation over Washington's decision to provide Israel more defence aid, citing worries that the US-backed combat in Gaza would bring more suffering to both Israelis and Palestinians.

Josh Paul, a director in the State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, asserted in a memo he shared online on Wednesday that President Joe Biden's administration was carrying on the mistakes that the US has been making for decades.

“The response Israel is taking, and with it the American support both for that response and for the status quo of the occupation, will only lead to more and deeper suffering for both the Israeli and the Palestinian people,” he wrote.

“I fear we are repeating the same mistakes we have made these past decades, and I decline to be a part of it for longer,” he said.

He added that the Biden administration's “blind support for one side” was leading to policy decisions that were “shortsighted, destructive, unjust and contradictory to the very values we publicly espouse”.

“I knew it was not without its moral complexity and moral compromises, and I made myself a promise that I would stay for as long as I felt the harm I might do could be outweighed by the good I could do,” wrote Paul who was involved in arms transfers to US allies for more than 11 years.

“I am leaving today because I believe that in our current course with regards to the continued — indeed, expanded and expedited — provision of lethal arms to Israel I have reached the end of that bargain,” he said.

“Continuing to give Israel what he described as carte blanche to kill a generation of enemies, only to create a new one, does not ultimately serve the United States’ interests," Paul said during an interview with The New York Times.

“What it leads to is this desire to sort of impose security at any cost, including in cost to the Palestinian civilian population,” he told the US publication. “And that doesn’t ultimately lead to security.”

Israel retaliated against the embattled Palestinian enclave on October 7 after Hamas, the group that controls Gaza, launched a surprise attack on southern Israel.

Over 3,700 people have died in Gaza and at least 1,400 people have died in Israel as a result of the firefight in the area. In addition, nearly a million Palestinians have lost their homes and over 14,000 have suffered injuries.

On Wednesday, Biden paid a visit to Israel, offering them encouragement and "the green light to act as it sees fit" in Gaza, adding to the rage among protesters across the world, calling for a ceasefire in the region of conflict.