In response to a drone attack launched by militant groups linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) that killed three U.S. soldiers, President Joe Biden issued a statement Feb. 2 announcing a U.S. military counterattack and the promise that our nation’s response “will continue at times and places of our choosing.”

“The United States does not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world,” the president said at the time. “But let all those who might seek to do us harm know this: If you harm an American, we will respond.”

That promise—that the loss of even one American life will be met with swift action—feels hollow now, following the April 1 deaths of seven humanitarian aid workers with the food relief nonprofit World Central Kitchen (WCK). The Israeli military killed one Palestinian and six foreign citizens—including a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada––in multiple drone strikes. The vehicles of the victims were clearly marked with the WCK logo, and Israeli authorities were aware of their itinerary and route. 

The deaths of predominantly white foreigners sparked international outrage, and even President Biden, one of Israel’s staunchest allies and supporters, was reportedly left “privately enraged.” One senior official told CNN Biden was “angry” and “increasingly frustrated” and planned to “express those frustrations” to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The phone call between the two leaders was reportedly tense. In the days since, Israel has shown almost no accountability for the targeted attack, characterized by WCK’s celebrity chef founder Jose Andres as an intentional bombing that occurred “systematically, car by car.” In a video released after the deadly bombing, Netanyahu said, in part, “this happens in war.” 

The president’s anger over the deaths of WCK aid workers appears real, but it is far from enough. If not followed by real action, his anger is performative at best—especially when considering that the targeting of the aid workers is but a snippet of the wider brutality Israel has shown in Gaza and Palestine for over 75 years of occupation. 

According to Janti Soeripto, president and chief executive officer of the humanitarian organization Save the Children, the Israeli military’s siege and relentless bombings have killed more than 200 humanitarian aid workers in Gaza since Oct. 7. In that time, the Israeli military has also killed an estimated 33,000 Palestinians, including nearly 14,000 children. 

In what is likely a vast undercounting, the Committee to Protect Journalists reports that Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 95 journalists. They also note numerous reports of “other journalists being killed, missing, detained, hurt, or threatened, and of damage to media offices and journalists’ homes.”

And let us not forget that, as of January, the White House reports there are still as many as six Americans among the nearly 100 hostages held by Hamas. Accounts from hostages who were released during a brief ceasefire in November detailed how they assumed they would “die from Israel’s missiles and not from Hamas.”

“We were in tunnels, terrified that it would not be Hamas, but Israel, that would kill us,” said another hostage released in December. That same month, the Israeli military shot and killed three Israeli hostages calling for help, including one waving a white flag.

Despite all of this death and destruction, the Biden administration continues to provide unwavering support to Israel, including billions in funding and more than 100 arms transfers since Oct. 7. Two senior White House officials told Politico that Biden appears unlikely to change his approach after the deadly strike on aid workers and simply calling for “accountability… is as far as [Biden] and the White House will go for now.”

“It’s just rinse and repeat with the Israelis,” a senior Biden official told Politico. “The American political system can’t or won’t draw a real line with them and that is regrettable.”

“Regrettable” is certainly one word to use, though “complicit” is far more accurate. As another anonymous senior White House official described, there has been no “shift in policy,” just a “shift in the president’s frustrations.” The U.S. is still poised to sell more than $18 billion worth of American-made fighter jets to Israel. Days before the Israeli airstrike targeting WCK aid workers, the Biden administration also authorized the transfer of over 2,000 bombs to Israel. It’s also worth noting the U.S. repeatedly vetoed or abstained from United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for a ceasefire.

If it takes the death of an American-Canadian humanitarian aid worker for the sitting president of the U.S. to express care about the systematic killing of innocent civilians, so be it. Then again, as journalist Prem Thakker noted during a recent press conference with State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, April 3 would have been Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh’s birthday, if she had not been shot and killed by Israeli forces in 2022 while wearing a press vest. Despite the deaths of Akleh and other journalists at the hands of the Israeli military since, there have been no updates, no policy changes, and no accountability measures while investigations reportedly continue to unfold.

White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby assured the public on April 5 that the Biden administration will continue to hold Israel accountable for killing seven humanitarian aid workers, ensuring that “concrete, verifiable, achievable, and again, sustainable changes to their process” are implemented so “something like this does not happen again.”

But for all of the reporting about Biden’s anger toward and growing frustrations with Netanyahu, the president’s actions have amounted to little more than giving the prime minister a stern talking-to—verbal warnings the Israeli government clearly doesn’t take seriously. In the most recent example of this dynamic, Biden and other U.S. officials have repeatedly warned Netanyahu against invading Rafah. On Monday, Netanyahu released a video statement declaring his intent to invade the southern Gaza city filled with an estimated 1.4 million displaced Palestinians. 

“It will happen,” Netanyahu said, defying his closest ally. “There is a date.”

Israel’s indiscriminate killing of civilians, journalists, and aid workers cannot continue without U.S support, explained Annelle Sheline, the third U.S. official to resign in protest of the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza.

“People keep saying things like: The U.S. doesn’t actually have that much leverage. No, the U.S. does have leverage,” she said. “It is not being used. Israel can’t fight the war without U.S. weapons.” 

Israel’s reckless and indiscriminate murder of civilians is part of the culture of the Israeli military.  As one official said, the approach in Gaza is “shooting first and asking questions later.” But this is not a new phenomenon. One 2005 report, later confirmed by Israeli soldiers, documented instances in which the military was “routinely authorized to shoot and kill children in situations of minimal or no threat” and ordered to “fire at anything that moved.” Others said they were told to kill “every person you see on the street.” 

“And we would just do it,” one Israeli soldier said.

I reported from Israel in the wake of Oct. 7. I have seen the devastation firsthand, sitting across from survivors and holding hands with the family members of victims. And as Israel denies international reporters independent access to Gaza, it is only because of the brave efforts of Palestinian journalists that we can all see the devastation and death caused by the Israeli military. 

If Biden is truly “outraged and heartbroken” by the deaths of seven humanitarian workers as he claims, he should immediately suspend funding and arms to Israel, sanction the Israeli government, and demand an immediate ceasefire. And if our president only continues to offer up faux outrage, it is the continued equivalent of giving our permission for Israel to continue killing, bombing, and starving thousands of innocent people in Gaza and all occupied Palestinian territories.