The Washington report on human rights ignores the crimes of deliberate Israeli genocide and starvation.

After leaked drafts revealed the Trump administration's plans to downplay human rights violations in certain allied countries, including Israel, the U.S. State Department released the final version of its annual report on Tuesday, sparking a new wave of condemnation.

It was noted that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, contrary to previous traditions, did not provide a written introduction to the report or disclose its publication to reporters, nor did he make any comments on it.

The section of the report concerning Israel - the occupied Palestinian territories, and Gaza consists of only nine pages. This brevity caught the attention of various media outlets, being significantly shorter than last year's version compiled during the Biden administration, and it did not include any mention of the acute humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Since October 7, 2023, Israeli occupation authorities have killed more than 61,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local officials, although experts warn that the actual death toll is likely much higher, with most being children and women. The report did not mention the famine in Gaza due to Israel's blockade on aid, which has led to the starvation deaths of more than 200 people, including 103 children.

The U.S. report on Israel does not mention the genocide case Israel faces at the International Court of Justice regarding its attack on Gaza, nor the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The section dedicated to war crimes and genocide is limited to stating that "the terrorist organizations, Hamas and Hezbollah, continue to indiscriminately target Israeli civilians, in violation of the law of armed conflict."

While the world mourns the killing of six more Palestinian journalists in Gaza this week - prompting the United Nations Security Council to hold an emergency meeting - the section of the report concerning press freedom is also brief and does not mention the hundreds of journalists who have been killed in Israel's genocide of the enclave.

The release of the report was delayed for months due to Trump appointees radically altering a previous draft from the State Department to align it with "America First" values, according to government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce explained these changes during a briefing on Tuesday, stating that the reports focusing on 2024 "remove redundancy, increase readability, and respond to the legislative mandates on which the report is based, rather than an expanded list of politically biased demands and claims."

It is noted that in previous editions of the report concerning Israel and the occupied West Bank, and Gaza - including those compiled during Trump's first term - claims and figures from United Nations organizations and human rights groups regarding alleged violations were included, although they were almost entirely omitted in the 2024 report. Concerns about Israel's violations of rights were kept general, and there was no mention at all of settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, which has largely gone unchecked and has even resulted in the deaths of several American Palestinian citizens. No mention was made of any Palestinian attacks against Israelis - aside from those related to the Hamas attack on October 7, 2025.

It was also noted that the 2024 U.S. State Department report on human rights practices in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza overlooks some of the most serious human rights violations committed by Israeli occupation forces in Gaza, undermining the annual report's value and credibility.

According to experts, Secretary of State Marco Rubio reviewed the State Department reports for one main purpose, aimed at whitewashing Israel's crimes, including the horrific genocide and starvation in Gaza. Shockingly, the report does not include a word about the compelling evidence of genocide, mass starvation, and the deliberate bombing of civilians in Gaza."

Experts believe that Rubio has challenged the text and purpose of U.S. laws that require the State Department to report truthfully and comprehensively on human rights violations in every country, instead providing a soothing cover for those committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.