US Army officer resigns over Washington's support for Israel

WASHINGTON

A US Army officer announced Monday that he had resigned in protest over Washington’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza.

Harrison Mann, an officer with the Defense Intelligence Agency, said in his letter of resignation which he published on LinkedIn that the US's "nearly unqualified support" for Israel "enabled and empowered the killing and starvation of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians.”

Stating that his work "unquestionably contributed to that support," Mann said: "This has caused me incredible shame and guilt.”

"This unconditional support also encourages reckless escalation that risks wider war,” he added.

Last month, Hala Rharrit, the US State Department's spokeswoman for the Middle East and North Africa, resigned in protest of the Biden administration's policy on the Gaza Strip.

Rharrit has worked in various roles at the State Department since 2005 and was a spokesperson for the Middle East and North Africa since August 2022, according to her LinkedIn page.

She is the third State Department official who has resigned publicly since Oct. 7 after Annelle Sheline, a foreign affairs officer in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, announced her resignation last month and Josh Paul, former director of the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, publicly announced his resignation on Oct. 19.

Israel has waged a military offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas which killed around 1,200 people.

More than 35,000 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and 78,700 others injured amid mass destruction and severe shortages of necessities.

Over seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel is accused of “genocide” at the International Court of Justice, which has ordered Tel Aviv to ensure that its forces do not commit acts of genocide and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.