Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, said Sunday that the killing of innocent people in Gaza “has to stop” and that the United States needs to focus on securing a ceasefire and, eventually, an end to the conflict.
“This killing has to stop of the innocent people there. I certainly understand Israel’s right to exist, its right to defend itself and what the Hamas terrorists did on October 7 – the outrageous, atrocious conduct on their part. But it’s reached a point where we have over 25,000 innocent people who have been killed in the process of rooting out Hamas, and it appears it’s gone from bad to worse,” Durbin told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”
On Friday, more than 100 people were killed in northern Gaza after Israeli troops opened fire, triggering panic as hungry Palestinians were gathering around food aid trucks. Many of the victims died when they were run over by trucks amid the panic, according to a witness account. More than 30,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s war with Hamas began in October, according to the health ministry in Gaza. And more than a half a million people in the enclave are on the brink of famine, according to United Nations agencies.
Durbin said he agreed with comments made by Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut in a recent interview with The Washington Post.
“If this is what the war continues to look like, with people being shot and trampled as they desperately try to get their hands on one of a small number of food and flour trucks that’s entering Gaza, it is not in the U.S. interest to continue to be part of that,” Murphy said.
On Saturday, the United States and Jordan air-dropped humanitarian aid into Gaza. The US Central Command said 38,000 meals were…
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