In an unprecedented criticism of its close ally, one it helped arm, the United States has observed that it was "reasonable to assess" that over the past seven months, Israel used weapons provided by Washington in Gaza in a way that was inconsistent with international humanitarian law.
However, the report by the US State Department, released Friday, did not offer any "conclusive findings", essentially nullifying the report and thus failed to block further weapons shipments to Israel.
The US has, in particular, provided Israel with heavy munitions such as 500 and 2000-pound bombs, which Israel has dropped to flatten entire neighbourhoods across the length and breadth of Gaza.
The report comes as ties between the US and Israel have frayed. US President Joe Biden had threatened Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he would halt some arms deliveries if Israel went ahead with its full-scale assault on Rafah, which commenced earlier in the week despite Hamas agreeing terms for a ceasefire.
Israel has insisted that it will not stop short of the complete elimination of Hamas, something it claims is not possible to do without sending ground troops into Rafah.
Israeli troops, including tanks, rolled into Rafah on May 7 under the cover of drones flying overhead and sealed off the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, effectively locking Gaza out and halting the transfer of all aid into the battle-scarred strip that hosts nearly 2 million people.
Palestinian toll from Israeli attacks since October 7 has surpassed 35,000 people dead and over 70,000 injured.
After Israel dropped leaflets asking Rafah residents to evacuate, around 100,000 people have moved north towards the battered sections of Gaza, including Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah.
UN General Assembly recognises Palestine
In a vote in the UN General Assembly on Friday, the world came together to overwhelmingly vote and recognise Palestine as a state and support granting Palestine full membership of the global body.
The US had vetoed an earlier measure in the UN Security Council, which sought the same effect.
The UN General Assembly considered and voted on a resolution which said that Palestinians should be admitted to the UN as a state and grants them some additional rights as observers.
The resolution received 143 votes for the motion, nine against, while there were 25 abstentions.