Calls in Congress for increased humanitarian aid and a cease-fire in Gaza grew on Thursday after more than 100 people were killed near a convoy of trucks bringing in aid to civilians in Gaza City.
Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) said there should be an opening of at least two points of entry for assistance to enter Gaza, instead of the one crossing at the southern border, to increase aid to areas including northern Gaza.
“If those areas have all of the food and medicine and water and gas that folks need, you will avoid tragic, gut-wrenching events like today,” he said. “That has to be a priority.”
He added that “diplomatic leaders got to push and push and push on all sides to bring this war to an end.”
Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he wasn’t sure if the deadly incident changed the debate but said it is “more imperative than ever” to get more aid into Gaza.
The bloody incident in which more than 100 people died in Gaza City came days after Michigan voters delivered a warning to President Biden in the form of a vote of “uncommitted” in the Democratic primary on Tuesday.
More than 101,000 people — 13.2 percent of the vote — cast ballots for “uncommitted” in Michigan to send a signal repudiating Biden’s support for Israel in the war.
The two sides offered different stories on what happened Thursday, with Palestinians and Gazan officials contending that Israeli troops opened fire on people seeking humanitarian aid. Israel claimed many were injured or killed as a result of a chaotic rush on the convoy, and that troops only fired on people who approached troops in a threatening way.
“As these vital humanitarian supplies were making their way toward Gazans in need, thousands of Gazans descended on the trucks,” said Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson. “Some began violently pushing and even trampling other Gazans to death, looting the humanitarian supplies.”
Hagari claimed “no IDF strike was conducted toward the aid convoy.”
The news was described as a “massacre” by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, which said as of Thursday evening that 112 people died and more than 700 remain injured in the frantic rush to access aid on Al-Rashid Street in Gaza City.
When asked about the incident Thursday, President Biden told reporters that his administration was still “checking that out.”
“There’s two competing versions of what happened,” Biden said. “I don’t have an answer yet.”
Biden also acknowledged the deaths could complicate negotiations to secure a new cease-fire and hostage release deal after expressing optimism earlier this week that a deal was at hand.
The U.S. is debating whether to send roughly $14 billion to Israel as part of a national security package, and some more progressive lawmakers are calling to place conditions on any assistance to the country to ensure humanitarian protections.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) grilled Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Thursday about the death toll in Gaza, arguing there should be “consequences when another country is defying” a U.S. request to lower the death toll.
“There has to be some consequence,” he said at a hearing, where Austin testified.
The Hill/ Ya Libnan
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