Washington, DC – The images of emaciated children coming out of Gaza have moved some of Israel’s staunchest supporters in the United States Congress to decry the humanitarian situation in the besieged Palestinian territory ravaged by Israeli-imposed starvation.Some Democratic lawmakers pointedly condemned Israel over the past few days, slamming the US and Israeli-backed GHF food distribution mechanism that has led to the killing of more than 1,000 Palestinian aid seekers.
But others issued vague statements calling for aid to enter Gaza without directly blaming Israeli policies.
“This is the reality: Having already killed or wounded 200,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, the extremist Israeli government is using mass starvation to engineer the ethnic cleansing of Gaza,” progressive Senator Bernie Sanders said in a statement late on Friday.
He accused the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of carrying out an “extermination” campaign in Gaza.
The anger threatens to shake the strong bipartisan support that Israel has enjoyed for decades in Congress, which authorises the billions in military aid that the staunch US ally receives from Washington annually.
But so far, there does not appear to be a significant push to impose actual consequences on the Israeli government for its forced mass hunger campaign in Gaza.
Just last week, the US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to approve $500m in missile defence support to Israel.
‘This cannot continue’
On Saturday, Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen hit out at Netanyahu and US President Trump for replacing humanitarian aid groups in Gaza “with mercenaries – leading to more death and devast …