Early warning of 'Apocalyptic Wasteland' in Gaza blocked by US envoys to Israel

U.S. Agency for International Development staffers in early 2024 drafted a warning to senior officials in Joe Biden's administration: Northern Gaza had turned into an "Apocalyptic Wasteland" with dire shortages of food and medical aid.



Three months after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks and Israel's incursion into the Gaza Strip, the internal message laid out in gruesome detail scenes observed by United Nations staff who visited the area on a two-part humanitarian fact-finding mission in January and February.



The staff reported seeing a human femur and other bones on the roads, dead bodies abandoned in cars and "catastrophic human needs, particularly for food and safe drinking water.”



But the U.S. ambassador to Jerusalem, Jack Lew, and his deputy, Stephanie Hallett, blocked the cable from wider distribution within the United States government because they believed it lacked balance, according to interviews with four former officials and documents seen by Reuters.



Reuters is the first to report on the cable and why it was suppressed.