US Officials Who Have Resigned in Protest over Biden’s Gaza Policy

Destroyed buildings seen as the Israeli army issues an evacuation order, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, 02 July 2024.  (EPA)
Destroyed buildings seen as the Israeli army issues an evacuation order, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, 02 July 2024. (EPA)
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US Officials Who Have Resigned in Protest over Biden’s Gaza Policy

Destroyed buildings seen as the Israeli army issues an evacuation order, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, 02 July 2024.  (EPA)
Destroyed buildings seen as the Israeli army issues an evacuation order, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, 02 July 2024. (EPA)

President Joe Biden's support for Israel during its nearly nine-month war in Gaza has spurred a dozen US administration officials to quit, with some accusing him of turning a blind eye to Israeli atrocities in the Palestinian enclave.

The Biden administration denies this, pointing to its criticism of civilian casualties in Gaza and its efforts to boost humanitarian aid to the enclave, where health officials say nearly 38,000 have been killed in Israel's assault which has also led to widespread hunger.

Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas-led fighters stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.

Here are the US officials who have resigned:

Maryam Hassanein, who was a special assistant at the Department of Interior, quit her job on Tuesday. She slammed Biden's foreign policy, describing it as "genocide-enabling" and dehumanizing toward Arabs and Muslims. Israel denies genocide allegations.

Mohammed Abu Hashem, a Palestinian American, said last month he ended a 22-year career in the US Air Force. He said he lost relatives in Gaza in the ongoing war, including an aunt killed in an Israeli air strike in October.

Riley Livermore, who was a US Air Force engineer, said in mid-June that he was leaving his role. "I don't want to be working on something that can turn around and be used to slaughter innocent people," he told the Intercept news website.

Stacy Gilbert, who served in the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, left in late May. She said she resigned over an administration report to Congress that she said falsely stated Israel was not blocking humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Alexander Smith, a contractor for USAID, quit in late May, alleging censorship after the US foreign aid agency canceled publication of his presentation on maternal and child mortality among Palestinians. The agency said it had not gone through proper review and approval.

Lily Greenberg Call, a Jewish political appointee, resigned in May, having served as a special assistant to the chief of staff in the Interior Department. "As a Jew, I cannot endorse the Gaza catastrophe," she wrote in the Guardian.

Anna Del Castillo, a deputy director at the White House's Office of Management and Budget, departed in April and became the first known White House official to leave the administration over policy toward Gaza.

Hala Rharrit, an Arabic language spokesperson for the State Department, departed her post in April in opposition to the United States' Gaza policy, she wrote on her LinkedIn page.

Annelle Sheline resigned from the State Department's human rights bureau in late March, writing in a CNN article that she was unable to serve a government that "enables such atrocities."

Tariq Habash, a Palestinian American, quit as special assistant in the Education Department's office of planning in January. He said the Biden administration was turning a "blind eye" to atrocities in Gaza.

Harrison Mann, a US Army major and Defense Intelligence Agency official, resigned in November over Gaza policy and went public with his reasons in May.

Josh Paul, director of the State Department's bureau of political military affairs, left in October in the first publicly known resignation, citing what he described as Washington's "blind support" for Israel.



UN: More than 136,000 Displaced by Spread of War in Southeast Sudan

Residents wait to collect food in containers from a soup kitchen in Omdurman, Sudan March 11, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Residents wait to collect food in containers from a soup kitchen in Omdurman, Sudan March 11, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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UN: More than 136,000 Displaced by Spread of War in Southeast Sudan

Residents wait to collect food in containers from a soup kitchen in Omdurman, Sudan March 11, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Residents wait to collect food in containers from a soup kitchen in Omdurman, Sudan March 11, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

More than 136,000 people have fled Sudan's southeastern Sennar state since the Rapid Support Forces began a series of attacks on towns, the United Nations said on Thursday, the latest wave of displacement caused by Sudan's almost 15-month long war.

They join nearly 10 million people driven from their homes since war broke out between the RSF and the regular army. The war has sparked accusations of "ethnic cleansing" and warnings of famine, mainly in RSF-controlled areas across the country.

The RSF on June 24 began a campaign to seize the city of Sennar, a trading hub, but quickly turned to the smaller towns of Sinjah and al-Dinder, prompting an exodus of civilians from all three, mainly to neighbouring al-Gedaref and Blue Nile states, Reuters reported.

Images on social media showed people of all ages wading across the Blue Nile.

Activists in both states say there is little shelter or food aid for the incomers. In Gedaref, they faced an onslaught of heavy rain while stranded in the state capital's main market with no tents or blankets after schools that had served as displacement centers were emptied by the government, the local resistance committee said.

The UN's International Organization for Migration said in a statement that since June 24, an estimated total of 136,130 people had been displaced in Sennar.

The state was already home to more than 285,000 people displaced from Khartoum and al-Gezira states, meaning that many of those leaving over the last two weeks were likely to have been displaced for the second or third time. It also said that villages in Gedaref state, one of several possible targets for the RSF campaign, had also seen an exodus.

To the west of the country, local activists said at least 12 people were killed by artillery fire on a livestock market on Wednesday in the city of al-Fashir which has seen a months-long fight for control between the RSF and the army and allied armed groups.

It has caused an exodus of tens of thousands west to Tawila and Jebel Mara, areas controlled by one of Sudan's largest groups led by Abdelwahid al-Nur, who on Thursday offered to use his troops to secure al-Fashir if both sides withdraw.

In a statement, Nur said that al-Fashir, which along with nearby Zamzam camp is one of 14 locations flagged by monitors as approaching famine, could then resume its role as a hub for humanitarian aid delivery.