WASHINGTON

US Sen. Peter Welch denounced the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and called on Congress to take action on the mass starvation in the besieged enclave.

"The Israeli-inflicted starvation of Palestinians in Gaza must end. It must end," Welch said Tuesday on the Senate floor.

He warned that the US, through funding and weapon transfers to Israel, bears responsibility for the situation.

"The deaths of so many tens of thousands of innocent people in Gaza will become part of our history, because the USA shares responsibility for this catastrophe, and we and future generations of Americans will have to live with that forever," he said.

Welch argued that it is a manmade famine caused by weapons provided by the US.

"The starvation we're seeing today is not the unforeseen or unintended consequence of war. Let me be direct. The starvation we are witnessing today is the result of a military policy to concentrate the Palestinian population into an ever smaller slice of land," he said.

'We are at an absolutely catastrophic inflection point'

The senator stressed that the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has unleashed "the most deadly and destructive aerial bombardment campaign" since Vietnam.

"We are at an absolutely catastrophic inflection point, and I believe that the United States Senate has an obligation, as our country does under international humanitarian law, to act, and we can act and help to save thousands of Palestinians who, as I speak, are starving to death," Welch said.

Stressing that what is going on in Gaza is a "war crime," he said it is illegal to starve children to obtain a battlefield advantage.

"Enough! No, the United States will not stand by while hunger is used as a weapon. We don't do that. We cannot separate the current starvation in Gaza from the Netanyahu government's strategy of forcibly displacing Palestinians from their land," he added.

The Israeli army, rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, has pursued an offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 60,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children. The relentless bombardment has destroyed the enclave.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.