Bernie Sanders on Wednesday described Israel’s war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza as a “genocide” of Palestinians, becoming the first United States senator to make that charge against the Jewish state.
“The intent is clear. The conclusion is inescapable: Israel is committing genocide in Gaza,” Sanders said in a statement, after laying out statistics about casualties of the war and then quoting inflammatory remarks by Israeli ministers as evidence of genocidal intent.
“Having named it a genocide, we must use every ounce of our leverage to demand an immediate ceasefire, a massive surge of humanitarian aid facilitated by the UN, and initial steps to provide Palestinians with a state of their own,” said the senator.
The war in Gaza started October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. The war’s stated aims are the return of the hostages, the destruction of Hamas as a military and governing power, and the prevention of any future security threat to Israeli citizens from Gaza.
Israel insists that it fights in accordance with international law, and has rejected allegations of genocide or other war crimes in its campaign against Hamas. It has noted evacuation warnings sent in advance of airstrikes; efforts, throughout most of the war, to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid; and Hamas’s systematic use of human shields.
Sanders’s statement came in the wake of a UN Human Rights Office report, issued Tuesday, that said Israel has violated the Genocide Convention. Like Sanders, the report provided an overview of the war’s casualties, emphasizing the deaths of civilians, and then quoted bellicose statements by Israeli leaders in the first days of the war as evidence of genocidal intent.
Unlike the UN report, Sanders’s statement began with a description and explicit condemnation of Hamas’s October 7 attack.
Sanders, a democratic socialist representing Vermont, is Jewish and volunteered on a kibbutz when he was young. He has long accused Israel of fighting using indiscriminate tactics in the war, and has called for an embargo on the sale or provision of offensive weapons to Israel. Until now, however, he had avoided calling the Gaza campaign a “genocide.”
The accusation, long rejected by Israel and the Trump administration, had not been made yet by any of the 100 members of the US Senate. In the 435-member House of Representatives, more than a dozen Democrats have already leveled the charge, including the party whip, Katherine Clark. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican ally of President Donald Trump, has also made the accusation.
In his statement, Sanders cited the death toll in Gaza, using numbers provided by the Strip’s Hamas-controlled government, which do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
He also, like the UN report, cited a “leaked classified Israeli military database [indicating] that 83% of those killed have been civilians.” The figure, reported in late August by Israeli activist outlets and the UK’s Guardian, only accounts for slain Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives whom the military has identified by name. The report said the total number (and thus proportion) of combatants killed by troops is higher. Israel has publicly estimated the number to be over 22,000.
Sanders also accused “the extremist Netanyahu government” of severely limiting the entry of humanitarian aid throughout the course of the war. He made particular note of the 11-week total blockade Israel imposed on the Strip after the collapse of a ceasefire earlier this year.
“More than 400 people, including 145 children, have already starved to death. Each day brings new deaths from hunger,” Sanders said, using figures that also come from Hamas-controlled authorities.
Israel denies there is any starvation in Gaza, and has noted its efforts to facilitate the flow of aid, including by airdrops, special corridors, and 10-hour daily pauses in fighting throughout parts of the Strip. Israel also points to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a controversial US- and Israel-backed mechanism launched earlier this year to provide aid while avoiding its diversion to Hamas. Sanders did not mention the GHF.
The Vermont senator also said that “Israel has systematically destroyed Gaza’s physical infrastructure,” and pointed to Jerusalem’s push for “‘voluntary’ migration” from the Strip, and Trump’s remarks (since walked back) that the US would acquire the Strip, as “openly pursuing a policy of ethnic cleansing.”
As evidence of genocidal intent, Sanders cited a series of statements by Israeli leaders, including remarks by the defense minister and president in the first days of the war that Israel was fighting “human animals” and that “an entire nation” was responsible for the massacre, respectively.
Both those leaders swiftly clarified that they were not calling for harm to Gazan civilians, in the latter case within the same speech. Sanders also cited more inflammatory remarks by far-right ministers, whom Netanyahu has insisted, though part of his government, do not dictate war policy.
Sanders’s statement came as Israel faces increasing isolation on the global stage, amid outcry over the war.
In addition to the UN Human Rights Office’s genocide report, the UN, EU, and Britain on Tuesday condemned Israel’s new offensive in Gaza City, and a raft of countries have announced they will recognize a State of Palestine at a UN summit next week. Additionally, Spain has imposed an arms embargo, and the EU on Wednesday proposed suspending a trade agreement with Israel. Some half-dozen states have also banned several far-right Israeli ministers from entering their countries.