US State Department official resigns, claims her office’s report on Gaza was inaccurate

A US State Department official who quit this week says her resignation was precipitated by an administration report to Congress that she said falsely stated Israel was not blocking humanitarian aid to Gaza, prompting her to resign in protest of US President Joe Biden’s Israel policy.

Stacy Gilbert, who served in the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, was a subject matter expert working on the report.

“There is so clearly a right and wrong, and what is in that report is wrong,” says Gilbert, a lower level diplomat.

The State Department submitted the 46-page unclassified report earlier this month to Congress as required under a new National Security Memorandum that Biden issued in early February.

Among other conclusions, the report said that in the period after October 7 Israel “did not fully cooperate” with the US and other efforts to get humanitarian aid into Gaza.

But it said this did not amount to a breach of a US law that blocks the provision of arms to countries that restrict US humanitarian aid.

Gilbert, who worked for the State Department for over 20 years, says she notified her office the day the State Department report was released that she would resign. Her last day was Tuesday.

US State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel tells reporters that he would not comment on personnel issues but that the department welcomes diverse points of view.

He says the administration stands by the report and continued to press the government of Israel to avoid harming civilians and urgently expand humanitarian access to Gaza.