Mr. President, I rise tonight to talk about the extraordinarily challenging humanitarian situation in Gaza. And let's begin with October 7. Israel has every right to eliminate the military threat of Hamas, to go after Hamas terrorists who conducted a horrific attack on Israel October 7. But how the Netanyahu government wages that war matters. And how they have done so is deeply disturbing to millions of Americans, and it is deeply disturbing to me. Hamas is the enemy. Palestinian civilians are not the enemy. Earlier this month, Senator Van Hollen and I visited the Rafah Crossing on the border between Egypt and Gaza. We spoke with aid workers who had served in the worst conflict zones in the world, from Syria to Sudan to Yemen, including one worker who had spent several months working on the frontline in Ukraine. Each told us that they had never witnessed a humanitarian disaster on the scale or severity of Gaza. In Gaza, calamity after calamity multiplies the suffering. It is not just a shortage of food. It is a shortage of food; it is contaminated water; it is massive displacement; it is continuous bombing and shelling; it has destroyed hospitals and other hospitals that desperately need drugs and medical supplies; it is communication failures due to damage and communication failures due to blackouts. As of today, more than 26,000 Palestinian civilians are dead. It is estimated that 70 percent are women and children--some 18,000 women and children.…
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