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

WASHINGTON — 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 continuing international criticism of the Israeli military’s conduct in the Gaza conflict, which began on Oct. 7, 2023, with an assault on Israel by Hamas that killed about 1,200 people.

But Mollie Halpern, a spokesperson for the inspector general’s office, said Thursday 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 health officials in the Hamas-run territory,

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 (900-kilogram) 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. The move marked the Biden administration’s most serious signal of displeasure since the war started.

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 on Tuesday, that “we will perform the audit at the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the US 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.