WASHINGTON

The US Senate rejected two resolutions Thursday that were introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders to block nearly $9 billion in military assistance to Israel.

In a vote of 15-82, the Senate declined to discharge S.J. Res. 33, a resolution of disapproval that sought to block the proposed arms sale to Israel. A second resolution, S.J. Res. 26, to halt the sale of certain defense articles and services to Israel, was also rejected by a vote of 15-83.

The vote marked the Vermont senator’s second attempt to halt arms transfers to Israel amid the brutal onslaught in the Gaza Strip, where more than 50,500 people have been killed, mostly women and children.

The arms that Sanders's latest action attempted to block include 35,000 2,000-pound bombs, weapons that Israel has used to level wide swathes of Gaza in attacks that have been widely decried by the international community as indiscriminate.

The action came after Israel broke a ceasefire in Gaza with large-scale strikes that have added hundreds of new fatalities to an already grim death toll.

In his address on the Senate floor before the vote, Sanders said the US must not "continue to be complicit in the destruction of the Palestinian people."

Noting that the US provided Israel with $18 billion in military aid and delivered more than 50,000 tons of military equipment last year, he said: "The time is long overdue for us to tell the Netanyahu government that we will not provide more weapons of destruction to them."

"Instead, we must demand an immediate ceasefire, a surge in humanitarian aid, the release of the hostages, and the rebuilding of Gaza for the Palestinian people," he added.

Sanders accused Israel of restricting humanitarian aid and argued that continued US military assistance violates the Foreign Assistance Act and the Arms Export Control Act, which prohibit arms sales to nations that block aid or violate human rights.