Israel uses US intelligence in ways that kill civilians, US officials worry - report

US officials have voiced concerns that intelligence shared with Israel is contributing to the death toll of innocent civilians, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Sunday that quoted officials close to the matter. This report has not been corroborated.

The main concern that was voiced in the report was the lack of oversight into what Israel chooses to do with the intelligence that the US provides it.

One Congressman interviewed in the report, Rep. Jason Crow, is concerned that Israel is using intelligence to conduct strikes on innocent civilians.

“What I’m concerned about is making sure our intelligence sharing is consistent with our values and national security interests,” said Crow. Crow is a member of the Democratic Party and is from Colorado.

Crow also stated that he met with senior Israeli and US intelligence officials and that the two sides had “pretty big inconsistencies” in terms of the Gazan civilian death toll.

The driving factor for these concerns is the lack of clear oversight mechanisms. This means that the only oversight that officials have over how Israel uses intelligence is assurances given by Israel before any action is taken. Additionally, it becomes more difficult to distinguish which intelligence was provided by the US once it has been mixed with intel gathered by the IDF.

US intelligence considerations

According to the report, US intelligence assesses what its partner could potentially do with the shared information and then determines if it would be legal for the US to do the same. Based on that, the US either shares the information or demands additional assurances or explanations from the ally explaining what it would do with the intelligence before sharing it.

“Israel provides assurances that operations making use of US intelligence are conducted in a manner consistent with international law, including the Law of Armed Conflict, which calls for the protection of civilians,” said an unnamed US intelligence official.

What intelligence is being shared?

According to the report, concerns have been growing since a secret memorandum was passed after the October 7 attack, which expanded the amount and content of intelligence that the US shared with Israel.

Most of the intelligence shared by US spy agencies deals with locating leaders of Hamas’s military wing or finding hostages currently in captivity in the Gaza Strip.

The material shared by the US with Israel is usually raw intelligence, such as live feed videos from the Gaza Strip, that have been collected by US intelligence-gathering drones.

Notably, the report mentioned that the US doesn’t designate what the shared material is to be used for, meaning the US doesn’t dictate whether shared footage should be used for a ground attack on a location or an airstrike.

“Our intelligence sharing is focused on hostage-recovering and preventing incursions into Israel. That includes monitoring mobilization or movement near the border,” an unnamed US official said.

“We cannot provide actionable information that could lead to lethal consequences by a country unless we are authorized to conduct the same activity,” Douglass London, a retired CIA operations officer and nonresident scholar at the Middle East Institute, added.

Despite these requirements, officials and human rights organizations alike feel that Israel’s word is not enough.