Tuesday on CNN’s “The Situation Room,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) claimed the United States was “complicit” in Israel’s war crimes.
Co-host Pamela Brown said, “The foreign ministers of 25 Western nations have slammed Israel for the, quote, drip feeding of aid into Gaza, as they call it, while Israel maintains a blockade to prevent Hamas from intercepting the aid, which is what Israel says. Is the U.S. applying enough pressure on Israel to prevent more civilian deaths?”
Van Hollen said, “No, not at all and the United States did not sign on to that document that you just mentioned, that was signed by many, many of our allies and major countries around the world. No, the Trump administration has been totally AWOL. They should be calling on the Netanyahu government to immediately allow food into the starving people. People are dying of starvation, people who are crowding around to get food have been shot by the IDF, that’s the World Food Program, Cindy McCain and others have have documented what’s happening. So we’ve not heard a peep from the Trump administration calling upon the Netanyahu government to comply with international humanitarian law and let more food into starving people.”
Brown asked, “Do you believe Israel is committing war crimes?”
Van Hollen said, “There have been war crimes committed in Gaza. There’s no doubt about it. As to the individual culpability, I have said in the past that people like Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, based on their statements of intent and actions, have, in my view, committed war crimes. Others may have committed war crimes, but it is absolutely a violation of international law to prohibit food from getting into starving people, and the United States is complicit in this. I mean, the United States is now spending $30 million to fund this private group supported by private mercenary contractors, instead of allowing the international aid, humanitarian organizations to provide food into Gaza. It’s absolutely sickening that the United States government is complicit in what’s happening.”
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