Hala Rharrit was at home in Dubai on October 7, 2023, when she learned of the Hamas militant group’s attack on Israel. She was stationed at the U.S. Consulate General, serving as Arabic Language Spokesperson and Regional Media Hub Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa. As a veteran U.S. foreign service officer and expert in Middle East affairs, Rharrit was not surprised that an attack had occurred. For some time the Gaza Strip, a small piece of land along the Mediterranean Sea inhabited mainly by Palestinian refugees and their descendants, had been a ticking time bomb. Every few years war broke out in the territory, forcing citizens to flee their homes, shelter in schools, and bury their dead. An extended economic blockade left the vast majority of Gaza’s residents impoverished, struggling to buy food and find affordable housing. Signs of hope remained—people married, had children, started small businesses, and worked to better their lives—but anger and uncertainty were growing. Gaza’s citizens lived in fear of violence or displacement. Parents saw few opportunities for their children. Many found themselves struggling to meet the basic needs of securing food and shelter.

Still, even the most informed were stunned by the brutality and scope of the Hamas attack. Launched from land, sea, and air, the Palestinian militant group’s assault killed more than 1,200 Israeli citizens and resulted in the taking of more than 240 Israeli hostages. Many, including U.S. President Joe Biden, labeled October 7, 2023, the “deadliest [day] for Jews since the Holocaust.”

Rharrit’s experience as a veteran American diplomat and peacemaker told her things would escalate, and the following day, for the first time in half a century, Israel declared itself in a state of war and began conducting air strikes on the Gaza Strip. “We knew,” Rharrit said, “there was going to be a forceful reaction, but I don’t think anyone predicted the outcome would be 34,000 killed [as of April 2024] and famine conditions” throughout the Palestinian territory.

Born in Morocco and raised in the United States, Rharrit grew up a member of the global community. Throughout her life and as an American diplomat, Rharrit witnessed the power of communication and learned that only by talking could communities learn to understand one another’s grievances, find common ground, and live together in peace.

Her belief in the power of communication motivated Rharrit to serve as State Department Spokesperson, marking a shift from her previous roles focused on back-door diplomacy and political affairs. Prior to October 7, Rharrit regularly appeared on television screens and print media throughout the Middle East and North Africa to articulate U.S. policy in a way that meant to strengthen ties between the United States and the Arab world. After October 7—true to her long-standing belief in the power of communication—she refused directives to give media interviews on Gaza, insisting that the messages coming out of Washington were dehumanizing to the Palestinians, destructive to America’s image in the Middle East, and a threat to U.S. national security. Her repeated objections to her superiors emphasized that continued unfettered U.S. support to Israel, despite repeated evidence of war crimes in Gaza, was a violation of international and U.S. laws, stressing that the policy needed to shift immediately to redeem the United States’ severely tarnished image.

In one example, she cited the administration’s failure to condemn the killing of Palestinian journalists. She pushed through a memo insisting that America uphold its belief in freedom of the press by releasing a strong statement. After much resistance, a watered-down statement on the protection of journalists in war zones came through. Nevertheless, the United States government’s double-standard in defending press freedoms was made clear to her. Rharrit grew increasingly frustrated.

After refusing to to conduct media interviews on Gaza as a Spokesperson, arguing they would hurt, not help, America’s image in the Arab world, Rharrit was tasked with providing daily snapshots summarizing events in Gaza from a pan-Arab media perspective, which also included how the United States was being portrayed across the region. These reports went to senior officials throughout the State Department and were often shared with the White House, Secretary of State, and other members of the U.S. interagency. In these daily reports, she documented the unfolding war crimes, the undeniable U.S. complicity, and a concerning, growing anti-Americanism throughout the region which, she argued, was a threat to U.S. national security. She was still determined to help decision-makers in Washington better understand the situation’s reality and initially believed that if the administration realized the severity of the situation, they would change course.

Rharrit and other field operatives made phone calls, wrote memos, sent articles, drafted cables, and shared images showing that the counter-assault had done nothing to achieve stated goals. The hostages were not freed. Hamas had not been held accountable for its actions. Palestinians were being massacred by bombs and starvation. Israeli citizens remained under threat of violence and death. Anti-American sentiment grew and placed our own national security interests at risk. The war raged as a genocide unfolded. As a peacemaker rooted in a belief that diplomacy, not bombs, is the only solution, Rharrit warned that U.S. policy on Gaza was causing a vicious cycle of violence that would perpetually destabilize the Middle East, compromising U.S. national security, while causing a regional humanitarian catastrophe.

Reason had to prevail. Reports from the field supported her findings. She wrote more reports and sent cables documenting and analyzing the devastating realities on the ground, urging policymakers to implement a more effective, legal, and humanitarian strategy, based on diplomatic solutions which, she argued, were absolutely achievable to de-escalate the situation. Senior State Department officials affirmed to her, repeatedly, that her field reporting was being sent to the highest levels of the State Department, the National Security Council, and the White House. State Department officials in Washington replied with thank-yous, distractions, or silence.

After months of reporting, senior officials encouraged Rharrit to get back on air to propagate U.S. policy on Gaza. She still refused, insisting she would not follow illegal orders and be complicit in an unfolding genocide. She encouraged her colleagues to remember their oath to the U.S. Constitution, to stand up for truth, justice, diplomacy, the law—values that the U.S. purports to uphold. After exhausting months delivering report after report to Washington, yet still seeing no shift in policy, Rharrit clearly understood that the administration refused to listen to its diplomats, to its experts, or to any concerned members of the U.S. interagency.

It’s not a secret that politicians in the United States benefit from campaign donations provided by an array of organizations. These groups give to candidates from both parties to ensure whoever ends up in power feels indebted to them. Their influence is often steered toward personal gain and not toward national security. The lack of reason among Washington lawmakers made no sense to her, unless these corrupting forces were at work. Rharrit came to believe that power wielded by special interest and lobbying groups such as arms dealers, fortified by institutionalized corruption, were playing a significant role in the decision-making process.

By April 2024, with the war’s body count at more than 34,000 Palestinians and 1,700 Israelis, it became painfully clear that the Biden administration would not shift their militaristic approach. She also came to the difficult realization that her role as a diplomat no longer mattered; it no longer held the same value to her as it had before. Throughout her eighteen years with the State Department, she had believed in her service to the United States and that her work, rooted in diplomacy, was helping to make the world a better place. Gaza shattered that belief. “I could no longer be a part of the State Department,” stressing that the U.S. policy on Gaza was “a failed, inhumane, and counter-productive militaristic strategy that would continue to have devastating reverberations for generations to come.” Rharrit felt a responsibility to speak out and share with the American public the depths of U.S. complicity in Gaza, in hopes that shining a light publicly would help generate change. The only way she could do that was to leave the government. After proudly serving around the world as a U.S. diplomat for almost two decades, Rharrit became the first U.S. Foreign Service Officer to publicly resign over the War in Gaza.

As her resignation made international headlines, Rharrit turned quickly from government insider to whistleblower. “What is happening in Gaza could not be happening without U.S. arms. That’s without a doubt,” Rharrit said in an interview on 60 Minutes. The United States had provided more than $18 billion in military assistance to Israel since October 2023. Bomb casings stamped “USA” lay next to the bodies of children killed by air strikes. Anti-American sentiment driven by the War in Gaza was at unprecedented levels. Rharrit argued that our actions had undermined the United States overseas and had put “a target on our backs.”

Rharrit continues to warn that, “in denying others’ humanity, we lose our own. . . .We cannot have security at the expense of one another. It is only through a recognition and appreciation of our common humanity that we can all find peace.”

The situation in the occupied territory became a tragedy of epic proportions. Sixteen months into the war the death toll in Gaza was estimated to be greater than 70,000. According to Al Jazeera, more than 90 percent of homes and 88 percent of schools in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed. The United Nations has estimated that rebuilding will cost at least $53 billion and last beyond 2040. Throughout all of this, Hala Rharrit continues her quest for peace and diplomacy. She sees it as the only way forward.

-authored by Julie Gronlund (2025; updated 2026)