Peter Welch: “all of us are extremely concerned--and I mean all of us: Senator Risch and all the Republican colleagues and me and all…”

“all of us are extremely concerned--and I mean all of us: Senator Risch and all the Republican colleagues and me and all of the Democratic colleagues--about the suffering and famine that are upon the folks in Gaza. Today, I am here to offer a resolution for consideration on which 46 Senators on our side agree. Although we have not had signatories on the Republican side, I know that my colleagues on the Republican side are very concerned about the devastating absence of food, medicine, and baby formula for 2 million Palestinians who are living in Gaza. It has been 74 days since aid trucks were allowed to transit into Gaza. That is a decision that the Israeli Government has made under Prime Minister Netanyahu. What does alarm me is that it is very clear under international law and it is very clear on prior actions that this U.S. Senate has taken that in a conflict, as a tactic of war, starving a civilian population is illegal, impermissible, and just wrong, absolutely wrong. As an indication of the suffering, this is one young child who died in her parents' arms, Janan Al-Saqafi. That was due to no food, no baby formula to feed this young person. The U.N. has released a report that indicates that if food is not brought into Gaza within the next 48 hours, 14,000 more infants will die, and they will die in the arms of their mother or father. So this question of should aid get in--obviously it should. It is not right for aid to be withheld as an instrument of war.”