Some US lawmakers call on Biden administration to stop military aid to Israel

WASHINGTON

Some US lawmakers on Monday voiced concern over the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, and called on the Biden administration to stop military aid to Israel.

"(Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu is committing human rights abuses over and over again – bombing hospitals, burning Palestinians alive, blocking food aid, and killing aid workers," Congresswoman Ilhan Omar said on X.

"This evil genocide must end and President Biden has to stop enabling it. That starts with cutting off military aid,” she added.

Her remarks came after the Pentagon announced on Sunday the deployment to Israel of a THAAD anti-missile system battery and a crew of US military personnel to operate it in order to help bolster the country's air defenses.

Congresswoman Cori Bush also called for an arms embargo to Israel.

"There are no words powerful enough to capture the agony of human beings being massacred & burned alive," Bush said, referring to images of Gazans being burned alive due to Israeli attacks.

Four people were killed and 40 others injured early Monday when Israeli warplanes hit a hospital courtyard in the central city of Deir al-Balah, burning 30 tents where people were sleeping.

"The U.S. is funding & arming the Israeli military’s extermination of the Palestinian people. It’s unconscionable. End this genocide. There must be an #ArmsEmbargoNow," Bush said on X.

When will US 'stop funding this madness?'

Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American member of Congress, said "genocidal maniac" Netanyahu is burning Palestinians alive, bombing hospitals, starving people, and killing aid workers.

"When will our country stop funding this madness? When?" she said on X.

During its offensive in Gaza, Israel has numerous times attacked hospitals, schools, and houses of worship – civilian sites normally off limits to attacks, raising the specter of war crimes.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – a member of the progressive “Squad” group in the US House of Representatives, along with Omar, Bush, and Tlaib – wrote on X: "The horrors unfolding in northern Gaza are the result of a completely unrestrained Netanyahu gov, fully armed by the Biden admin while food aid is blocked and patients are bombed in hospitals. This is a genocide of Palestinians.”

“Arms embargo now,” she added.

Over the last year, Israel has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza and displaced nearly the entire population of 2.3 million people, while also generating famine-like conditions and the spread of disease. It is now also carrying out air and ground raids in Lebanon, despite warnings that this could turn the war into a larger regional conflict.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.

Mediation efforts led by the US, Egypt, and Qatar to reach a Gaza cease-fire and prisoner swap agreement between Israel and Hamas have failed over Netanyahu’s refusal to halt the war.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.