U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) staff in early 2024 drafted an internal warning to senior officials in President Joe Biden’s administration, describing northern Gaza as an “apocalyptic wasteland” facing severe shortages of food and medical supplies.
The cable, prepared about three months after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and Israel’s subsequent military incursion into the Gaza Strip, detailed grim findings from a two-part humanitarian fact-finding mission conducted by United Nations staff in January and February.
According to the report, UN officials encountered human remains, including a femur and other bones scattered along roads, bodies left inside abandoned vehicles, and what they described as “catastrophic human needs,” particularly acute shortages of food and safe drinking water.
Despite the severity of the findings, the cable was blocked from wider circulation within the U.S. government. The U.S. ambassador to Jerusalem, Jack Lew, and his deputy, Stephanie Hallett, prevented its distribution, citing concerns that the assessment lacked balance.
That decision was confirmed by interviews with four former officials and documents reviewed by Reuters, raising questions about internal deliberations within the U.S. administration over how humanitarian conditions in Gaza were reported and communicated at senior levels.
