One Year On: Ending the Gaza War and Advancing Human Security Possible, Policy Changes Needed

Washington, DC – One year since the Hamas-led October 7 attack on southern Israel and subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza that has since expanded throughout the region, the Center for International Policy (CIP) shared new analysis on the U.S. role in the conflict and issued updated recommendations for what the Biden Administration can do to end the fighting and improve human security in the Middle East.

“Today we mark a year of immense suffering for the peoples of Israel and Palestine, as well as the continuing failure of governments to act in the interests of human security and international order. We see the anguish of Israelis who lost loved ones and whose government has prioritized clinging to power above the return of hostages taken among other atrocities in the Hamas-led attacks against Israeli communities one year ago,” said Nancy Okail, president and CEO of the Center for International Policy. “We cannot look away from the tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians killed, wounded and orphaned as a result of Israel’s ongoing and often indiscriminate assault on Gaza. And we are outraged as the United States government continues to arm this carnage in violation of its own laws, hobbling the diplomacy it is engaged in to end the fighting and stop its spread to Lebanon and beyond.”

CIP has offered analysis and recommendations over the past year aimed at ending the violence, advancing human security and ensuring accountability in the region. One year on, it is past time for action to be taken. 

As CIP’s new memo, The Gaza War at One Year: Five Recommendations for Ending the Fighting and Ensuring Human Security in the Middle East, outlines, key actions for the Biden Administration include:

1. Finally apply meaningful pressure to Netanyahu by suspending U.S. arms deliveries
2. Fully enforce U.S. law by suspending delivery to Israel of the arms it is using in Gaza, while pressing for and helping coordinate a massive emergency increase in humanitarian aid and services to the territory.
3. Focus diplomacy toward a just resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on multilateral rather than bilateral normalization efforts
4. Take meaningful anti-occupation, anti-annexation steps
5. Substantially expand support for the Palestinian people and Palestinian leaders who seek peace with Israel

CIP Executive Vice President Matt Duss has also published a deep analysis of the Biden Administration’s policies which have helped fuel rather than de-escalate the fighting in Gaza and throughout the region. Read his piece in The New Republic, “Joe Biden Chose This Catastrophic Path Every Step of the Way.” 

Finally, CIP continues to urge the U.S. government and its partners to prepare a plan for post-war governance in Gaza based on CIP Leahy Fellow Omar Shaban’s “A Proposal for a Gaza Reconstruction Council,” published in our International Policy Journal this June.

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