Humanitarian groups, United Nations experts, and lawmakers on Monday expressed horror and demanded action from the international community—and the United States in particular—following the latest flurry of atrocities by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, including the deadly bombing of a hospital complex filled with tent camps housing scores of displaced Palestinian families.
A spokesperson for the Biden administration, which has sent Israel more than 50,000 tons of military equipment since the Hamas-led October 7 attack last year, said in response to the hospital strike that the White House has “made our concerns clear to the Israeli government.”
U.S. Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) retorted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “clearly doesn’t care about our concerns.”
“The only time he’s ever changed behavior is when we’ve exerted our leverage,” Jacobs wrote on social media. “It’s time to do that now.”
U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), deputy chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), specifically called for “cutting off military aid” to the Israeli government, which has repeatedly used American-made weapons to attack civilians in the Gaza Strip as well as the occupied West Bank and Lebanon.
“Netanyahu is committing human rights abuses over and over again—bombing hospitals, burning Palestinians alive, blocking food aid, and killing aid workers,” said Omar. “This evil genocide must end and President Biden has to stop enabling it.”
Another CPC member, U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), wrote that the images emerging from the hospital compound bombing “are horrific and gut-wrenching.”
“Displaced families being burned alive. Where is the humanity?” she asked. “This has been going on for over a year now. The U.S. must stop sending bombs and we desperately need a cease-fire.”
At least four people were killed and dozens injured Monday by the Israeli airstrike on the premises of al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza. The Israeli military claimed without evidence that it was targeting a Hamas “command and control center in the area.”
“There were so many burned and charred bodies all over the place,” said one survivor. “The amount of fire and explosions was enormous. We witnessed one of the most horrible and brutal nights.”
Jeremy Stoner, Middle East regional director for Save the Children, said in a statement that “what we’re seeing now in Gaza looks like the depths of hell, with reports day after day of attacks on children and families.”
“Nowhere is safe,” Stoner added. “What military goals could justify such mass-scale slaughter of civilians? The notion of collateral damage must never be used to excuse the predictable killing of children.”
Stoner went on to condemn countries whose “only impactful action” in the face of such atrocities has been “to send the weapons being used to kill children and burn patients and families in hospitals and tents.”
“Humanity has lost its way if those with the ability—and legal obligation—to stop this slaughter choose not to,” said Stoner.
Joyce Msuya, acting under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs at the U.N., said that “there seems to be no end to the horrors that Palestinians in Gaza are forced to endure.”
“At least four people were burned to death. Scores of others, including women and children, are suffering severe burns,” said Msuya. “Just hours earlier, another strike on a school turned shelter in Nuseirat killed more than 20 people and injured scores of others, according to local sources. There really is no safe place in Gaza for people to go.”
According to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the school Israeli forces bombed Monday was supposed to be used as a polio vaccination site.
“These atrocities must end,” Msuya said. “Civilians and civilian infrastructure must always be protected.”
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