US Senator offers 2 amendments on foreign aid package

WASHINGTON

US Sen. Bernie Sanders offered two amendments for a $95 billion foreign aid package that passed in the House of Representatives that the Senate is taking up Tuesday.

"Let me be very clear, I strongly support ending the provision which will give $8.9 billion in unfettered offensive military aid to the extremist Israeli government," Sanders said on the Senate floor.

The Israeli government led by Prime Minister Netanyahu is continuing an "unprecedented assault" against the Palestinian people, he said.

The House passed foreign aid bills Saturday that allocates $60.8 billion for Ukraine, $26.4 billion for Israel and $8 billion for Indo-Pacific allies to counter China. Another bill would force the sale of TikTok and imposes sanctions on Iran, China and Russia. If passed, President Joe Biden has pledged to sign it into law.

The second amendment that Sanders put forth is to restore funding to the UN Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA) so children in the Gaza Strip do not starve.

Sanders said UNRWA is the "backbone" of the humanitarian relief operation in Gaza and it plays a "critical role" in the enclave and across the region.

That is “the only organization that experts say has the capability to provide the humanitarian aid that is desperately needed bail. And I have filed two amendments to address these issues," he said.

These amendments are "absolutely necessary" as more than 34,000 Palestinians, 70% being women and children, have been killed since Oct. 7, said Sanders.

"We must end our complicity in this terrible war. That is why we should support the amendment I am offering to end unfettered military aid to Netanyahu's war machine," he added.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Palestinian territory since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas, which killed less than 1,200 people.

Nearly 34,200 Palestinians have since been killed and more than 77,000 injured amid mass destruction and severe shortages of necessities.

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 International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in January issued an interim ruling that ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.