AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Nearly two dozen US lawmakers have called on the outgoing administration of Joe Biden to withhold offensive military transfers to Israel over the regime’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip, which began over 14 months ago.
The call was made in a letter signed by 20 lawmakers, led by Congressman Greg Casar, after the Biden administration warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet either to increase humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza or risk a reassessment of US military support.
"We urge your administration to adhere to and uphold US law by suspending offensive military transfers to Netanyahu,” and his occupation army, the lawmakers wrote in their letter.
"Failure to do so not only risks our leverage in ceasefire negotiations, it undermines our country's own national security and weakens America's commitment to human rights as a cornerstone of our foreign policy."
The Biden administration’s warning in October came with a 30-day deadline for Israel to meet a certain set of requirements, such as allowing 350 aid trucks a day into Gaza, instituting humanitarian pauses across the strip to allow for humanitarian activities and ensuring there will be no Israeli regime’s policy of forced evacuation of civilians from northern to southern Gaza.
However, the 30-day deadline passed and there was no US reassessment of military support, with Washington eventually claiming that it was satisfied with what Israel had done regarding the humanitarian situation.
Last week, a larger group of nearly 80 lawmakers wrote a letter to the Biden administration and called for the provision of a full assessment of how it concluded Israel had met the humanitarian requirements in Gaza that would allow the US to continue sending military aid to the country.
A group of Palestinians also filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as Washington continues supplying Israel with weaponry despite grave human rights abuses in Gaza.
UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, has raised the alarm about the “apocalyptic” situation in the Gaza Strip as a result of the Israeli regime’s tightened siege in the Palestinian territory.
“Gaza is apocalyptic right now,” Fletcher told CNN. “We are getting only a tiny fraction through of what is needed. We’re facing the specter of starvation again. Disease is rampant. Our trucks are getting looted… But we will keep trying against the odds.”
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