President Joe Biden s administration on Friday concluded its assessment of whether Israel is breaking international and American laws in its U.S.-backed military campaign in Gaza and did not conclude that Israels conduct requires Washington to cut off aid for the offensive, according to a copy of the assessment reviewed by HuffPost.

The report has major significance for Bidens policy of sending Israel huge weapons shipments, which is largely ongoing despite the presidents current pause on providing the country with a specific package of bombs, and despite his threats of halting more supplies if Israel expands its fighting in Gaza in the coming days.

The assessment says it is reasonable to assess that [U.S.-provided] defense articles... have been used by Israeli security forces since October 7 in instances inconsistent with its [international law] obligations or with established best practices for mitigating civilian harm.

But the report avoids holding Israel responsible for specific excesses like strikes on medical workers asserting, for instance, that the U.S. government cannot know if Israeli forces used American equipment in the hugely controversial World Central Kitchen strike last month and declines to deem Israeli restrictions on the flow of U.S. aid to Palestinians illegal.

The assessment cites serious concerns about Israeli respect for the laws of war, notes serious questions about Israeli orders for civilians in Gaza to move to practically uninhabitable areas and says Israel has not shared complete information that U.S. officials could use in investigations of whether the country has used American weapons to kill civilians. The U.S. intelligence community assesses that Israel could do more to avoid civilian harm, the report says, noting publicly available evidence, such as huge civilian casualties among Palestinians, to question whether Israels military is effectively using the knowledge, experience and tools it has to shield civilians. Still, the assessment often couches unflattering findings about Israeli actions by citing misconduct by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, and it repeatedly praises Israels controversial internal accountability mechanisms.

The report claims that between U.S. government findings and commitments from Israel about its behavior, Israeli assurances to respect international and American law can be treated as credible and reliable so the nation can continue receiving U.S. military support.

Israel claims it is abiding by international and U.S. standards in its offensive.

Lawmakers, officials and activists who have been raising the alarm about U.S. complicity in potential war crimes in Gaza blasted the report.

I think what theyre trying to do is make clear that they recognize how bad the situation is but they dont want to have to take any action, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) told reporters on Friday evening. The administration ducked all the hard questions.

Van Hollen a Biden ally who spurred the administration to produce the assessment and who has led advocacy against the Gaza policy in Congress called the intelligence communitys finding an understatement based on everything we know.

He also highlighted the administrations decision not to deem that Israel has breached the law in even one specific incident, noting that human rights groups and independent experts, including former State Department officials, have produced multiple investigations confirming violations.

Its not credible that the U.S. government has less information than organizations like Amnesty International , Human Rights Watch and Oxfam, Van Hollen said.

He added that Congress is going to want to look into specific cases because the report appears lacking a serious probe of them.