Under the US law, the barring of humanitarian aid disqualifies countries from obtaining US arms and security assistance.

Stacy Gilbert, a U.S. State Department official who resigned over Gaza, said on May 30, 2024, that part of a key report on humanitarian assistance issued earlier in the month was “patently false” and that it contradicted the consensus of the department’s own experts.

The Washington Post, which broke the story of Gilbert’s resignation on Tuesday, reported that her view that “Israel was impeding the aid from reaching civilians in Gaza” was “echoed by the vast majority of aid and humanitarian organizations.”

“I cannot do my job in an environment in which specific people cannot be acknowledged as fully human, or where gender and human rights principles apply to some, but not to others, depending on their race,” Smith wrote.

The US State Department determined that Israel wasn’t restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance—an assessment that allowed the Biden administration to continue providing arms to Israel. Countries that have blocked U.S. aid are ineligible for arms and security assistance under U.S. law.