Senior State Department official handling military assistance stepping down

A senior State Department official in charge of US security assistance and arms sales is stepping down from her position this month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Tuesday, without elaborating on why she is leaving.

"Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs Jessica Lewis will be stepping down from her position this month after nearly three years of serving the Department with distinction," Blinken said in a statement.

"During her three years in the department, the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs has provided $51.4 billion of US security assistance to Ukraine, surged assistance to Israel in the wake of the October 7 attacks, furnished Taiwan with billions of dollars in military equipment to enhance its self-defense capabilities, and launched the first Taiwan Foreign Military Financing program," he said in the statement.

A group of pro-Palestine protestors organized a protest outside Lewis's Capitol Hill home in May, holding up signs saying "14,500+ children murdered thanks to Jessica Lewis" and "Jessica Lewis, you have blood on your hands."

The State Department did not immediately respond to a question from Anadolu on whether Lewis's departure is in any way related to the Biden administration's Gaza policy.

Twelve US government officials have publicly resigned since Oct. 7 last year in protest over President Joe Biden's Gaza policy, accusing his administration of complicity in the killing and starvation of Palestinians.

"America's diplomatic cover for, and continuous flow of arms to, Israel has ensured our undeniable complicity in the killings and forced starvation of a besieged Palestinian population in Gaza," they said in a joint statement released last week.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.

More than 38,200 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 88,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Nine months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.