Several dozen Democratic members of Congress, including former speaker Nancy Pelosi, have sent a letter to US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling for a halt on arms transfers to Israel following an IDF strike in Gaza that killed seven staffers of the World Central Kitchen, including a dual US citizen.
“In light of this incident, we strongly urge you to reconsider your recent decision to authorize the transfer of a new arms package to Israel, and to withhold this and any future offensive arms transfers until a full investigation into the airstrike is completed,” the House representatives wrote.
“We also urge you to withhold these transfers if Israel fails to sufficiently mitigate harm to innocent civilians in Gaza, including aid workers, and if it fails to facilitate — or arbitrarily denies or restricts the transport and delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza,” they said.
Noting that Israel has said it did not intentionally target the aid workers, the Congress members said that “if this is true, it is a shockingly unacceptable mistake.” They also called for the administration “to conduct a thorough investigation into this airstrike,” which the White House reiterated Friday it will not do.
Most of the signatories were from the Democrat’s left flank but the backing by Pelosi indicated support for stopping weapons deliveries to Israel is increasingly becoming mainstream among Democrats.
Among the other 36 Democrats to sign were Representatives Barbara Lee, Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Biden has stepped up pressure on Israel in recent weeks and again in the wake of the killing of the aid workers, but has pushed back on suggestions he could cut off aid to Israel.
Biden said Friday that Israel was heeding his demand to let aid into Gaza, a day after he warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of a sharp shift in policy.
Asked as he left the White House whether he had threatened to stop military aid to Israel in the call with Netanyahu, Biden replied: “I asked them to do what they’re doing.”
Biden also appeared to take umbrage at the suggestion he would end support for Israel when asked by a reporter if he was abandoning Israel.
“Where you from, man?” Biden shot back, seemingly shocked by the question, given his longstanding support for the Jewish state.
“Are you abandoning Israel?” the reporter asked again.
“Is that a serious question?” the president replied, without giving a further response.
In a tense call on Thursday, Biden warned Netanyahu that US policy on Israel was dependent on the protection of civilians and aid workers in Gaza, following an Israeli strike that killed seven aid workers.
It was the first conversation between the two since an Israeli strike in central Gaza late on Monday killed seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen. Israel has called the strike on the WCK convoy a “grave mistake,” and vowed an in-depth investigation into how it occurred. But Netanyahu also said that “these things happen in war” — a line that wasn’t well received internationally.
Hours after the two leaders spoke, Israel announced that it would allow “temporary” aid deliveries into famine-threatened northern Gaza through the Israeli port of Ashdod and the Erez border crossing in the northern Gaza Strip for the first time since it was significantly damaged during the Hamas-led October 7 terror onslaught that sparked the ongoing war, when many Israelis were killed and abducted there.
Israel also said it was firing two officers after an IDF probe found that a series of “grave mistakes” led to the drone strikes that killed the World Central Kitchen aid workers.
