US Senator Calls Israeli Brutality in Gaza ‘Genocide’ for First Time

Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and this fact can no longer be ignored. US Senator Bernie Sanders said this in a statement on Wednesday. According to a report by the British newspaper The Guardian, he is the first US senator to say so..Earlier, when Bernie Sanders gave a speech at an event in Ireland last year, when Palestinian supporters were chanting ‘genocide, genocide,’ Bernie said that the incident made him uncomfortable.

Last Monday, after an independent investigation, the United Nations also said that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. And Bernie Sanders stated in a statement that he fully agreed with the UN report. ‘It is genocide. In the statement titled 'The Intention is Clear', Bernie also said that in two years, Israel has not only waged a self-defense war against Hamas, but is waging an all-out war against the entire Palestinian people.

In the statement, Bernie mentioned the number of casualties in Gaza. He said that 65,000 of the 2.2 million residents of the valley have been killed in the two-year Israeli attack, and another 164,000 have been injured. According to the Israeli army's database, 83 percent of the dead are civilians. He also presented statements by Israeli leaders to prove how brutal Israel is on the Gaza issue. Former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant referred to the Palestinians as 'animals'. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has vowed, 'Gaza will be completely destroyed.'

He said that Israel certainly had the right to defend itself after the attack on October 7, 2023. But Israel is using it as an excuse to kill innocent civilians in Gaza.

He said, “The United States cannot continue to be accused along with Israel in the ongoing aggression against Palestine. We should recognize this as genocide and try to end this war diplomatically with all our might. We should also work towards an immediate ceasefire, rapid and widespread humanitarian assistance under UN supervision, and the first steps towards establishing a state for the Palestinians.”

Before Bernie Sanders, several members of the House of Representatives had also called the ongoing operation in Gaza a genocide. They were Democrats Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Vermont Congressional Secretary Becca Balint.