Photo: Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., left, talks to Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., as Tlaib holds a sign as they attend a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to a joint meeting of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Asenior Hamas official has issued a warning to the United States over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s visit and upcoming address to Congress amid the war between the Palestinian movement and Israel in the Gaza Strip.
“Humanity should be ashamed of itself for allowing this crime of ‘genocide’ to continue, while the criminal ‘NETANYAHU’ who is carrying it out is to be received warmly in the capital of the biggest country in the world,” Hamas spokesperson and former health minister Basem Naim said in a statement shared with Newsweek.
The remarks came as Naim also penned an op-ed for Al-Jazeera on Tuesday in which he argued that “receiving a person accused of all kinds of war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially the crime of genocide, and celebrating him and enabling him from the highest platforms in the country to spread his lies, is a bad omen for you before it is for us, the Palestinians and the peoples of the region.”
President Joe Biden‘s administration has provided substantial military aid to Israel since the beginning of the conflict, which erupted last October after a Hamas-led surprise attack on Israel. At the same time, the war has emerged as a deeply polarizing issue in the U.S., with pro-Palestinian protests regularly breaking out across cities and college campuses nationwide in response to Israel’s ongoing offensive in Gaza, which has included the targeting of senior leaders of Hamas and other allied factions.
With tensions high over the issue at home and abroad, a spokesperson for the U.S. Secret Service told Newsweek that, “along with our law enforcement partners, we are monitoring the threat environment surrounding Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit.”
The spokesperson added that, “out of concern for operational security, the Secret Service does not discuss the specific means and methods used for our protective operations.”
Newsweek has reached out to Netanyahu’s office for comment.
At least one group, the Palestinian Youth Movement, has already claimed to have taken action in protest of Netanyahu’s visit.
In a video published Wednesday on X, formerly Twitter, the activists claimed to have released maggots at a table for the Israeli delegation at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C., “so that Netanyahu, Israeli Mossad agents, and the Secret Service had no peace as they continue to terrorize our people.”
Newsweek could not independently verify the claim.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza and condemned American protesters in a scathing speech to Congress Wednesday that triggered boycotts by many top Democratic lawmakers and drew thousands of protesters to the Capitol to condemn the war in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis it has created.
Nine months into the war in Gaza, Netanyahu vowed to press on with the war until “total victory.” He asked for continued U.S. support for his country’s fight against Hamas and other Iran-backed armed groups, and bitterly condemned widespread opposition in the United States to the war.
Newsweek/ AP
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