The US cannot be complicit in Israel's "horrific" war in the Gaza Strip against the Palestinian people, independent Sen. Bernie Sanders said Tuesday.
"The whole world is watching. (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu is starving the children of Gaza. We cannot be complicit in this atrocity," Sanders said in a video message on his X social account.
"I cannot find words to describe how horrific the situation is and could become," he added.
As a result of Israeli bombing and restrictions on aid entering Gaza, Sanders said only a tiny fraction of the food, water, medicine and fuel that is "desperately" needed can get into Gaza.
"Today, hundreds of thousands of children are starving and lack clean drinking water. The United Nations says the entire population of Gaza is at imminent risk of famine and some 378,000 people are starving right now," he added.
Stressing that many facilities have been damaged in airstrikes and a large number of health care workers trying to keep children alive have been killed, Sanders said the facilities that are operational today lack the basic medical supplies that "heroic" doctors and nurses need in order to save lives and treat their patients.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas. The ensuing Israeli attacks have killed 29,195 people and caused mass destruction and shortages of necessities, while less than 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.
The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel is accused of genocide at the Hague-based International Court of Justice, which issued an interim ruling in January that ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
