A month ago, White House spokesperson John Kirby declared Washington was so confident in Israels U.S.-backed offensive in Gaza that the U.S. did not need to investigate its actions.

Im not aware of any kind of formal assessment being done by the United States government to analyze the compliance with international law by our partner Israel, Kirby told reporters on Jan. 4, as the Biden administration rallied to defend Israel against an International Court of Justice case arguing that Israel was violating international protections against genocide. We have not seen anything that would convince us that we need to take a different approach in terms of trying to help Israel defend itself.

Kirbys comment echoed a string of similar claims from Biden administration officials. Their public narrative helps bolster U.S. claims that Israel is respecting global standards for fighting in pursuing Hamas in Gaza, and helps undercut the ICJ genocide case and other efforts to examine Israels conduct.

But internally, U.S. officials have been assessing possible international law violations by Israel for months, and they are continuing to do so, HuffPost has learned from four sources familiar with private discussions about the assessments.

At the State Department, officials are probing Israeli actions in Gaza which they believe may have broken international law, a State official familiar with discussions in recent weeks told HuffPost. States attorneys have tracked such examples for months, the official said.

The investigations are occurring through several avenues.

State is investigating whether Israel, a major recipient of American aid, has committed human rights abuses that violate U.S. law, the official said. Such violations could simultaneously have broken international law.

The State Department is also evaluating Israeli conduct through the Civilian Harm Incident Response Guidance process a new policy introduced by President Joe Biden last fall according to that official and another State Department official. That process is intended to monitor whether foreign governments use weapons provided by the U.S. to hurt civilians, and it could unearth evidence of international law violations, the officials said.

And during a closed-door briefing organized on Friday by the National Security Council at the White House, an NSC official said the U.S. has been conducting assessments of whether Israel is complying with international law, a source present at the briefing told HuffPost.

Spokespeople for the NSC and the State Department did not respond to requests for comment.

After this articles initial publication, a U.S. official contacted HuffPost to say Defense Department lawyers have also been working since at least November on assessments of Israeli actions in Gaza, and of whether apparent violations of international law implicate the U.S. The official had direct knowledge of internal discussions. Pentagon spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The revelation highlights a disconnect between the Biden administrations stated commitment to the presidents policy of full-scale military and diplomatic support for the Gaza campaign, and the awareness among foreign policy officials that the policy could be illegal and even implicate U.S. officials in war crimes.

It also directly undercuts public statements from Kirby who over the weekend was promoted to a new role overseeing U.S. national security communications across government agencies, and who has ardently rejected criticism of the Gaza policy, calling the ICJ suit against Israel meritless, counterproductive and completely without any basis in fact whatsoever.

Most judges at the court, the chief legal organ of the United Nations, have already disagreed. On Jan. 26, the court ruled it is plausible that Israel has broken international law by violating the Genocide Convention; it declined an Israeli request to dismiss the suit, brought by South Africa. (Both countries are parties to the convention.) The court ordered Israel to take steps to change its approach and report back within a month. South Africa on Tuesday petitioned the court for more urgent action, citing Israels recent threats of an assault on Rafah, the last major town in Gaza it does not control, where more than 1.4 million Palestinians are sheltering and conditions are already extremely desperate.

Since the court issued its preliminary ruling, Israels military has begun investigating alleged international law violations by its soldiers, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz revealed . Yet U.S. officials have refrained from publicly sharing their view of possible excesses.