""This is horrific, and we are complicit in it," Merkley said in an interview last week with the Mercury. "We are complicit because we provide the bombs, we provide the rifles, we provide the shells, we provide economic support." Merkley's remarks, some of his most pointed yet on the war waged by Israel in the Gaza Strip, come after the Democrat senator's return from an eight-day trip to the region with Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) in late August."
"The trip was Merkley's first to the region in more than a year-and-a-half and second since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. Since then, more than 64,000 people in the Gaza Strip have been killed, more than 163,000 have been wounded, and nearly 2 million have been displaced. The US has facilitated Israel's war effort with more than $22 billion in military aid since the war began."
"On Thursday, Merkley and Van Hollen released a 19-page report on their trip-arguing that the world has a "moral and legal obligation to stop the ongoing ethnic cleansing" of Palestine and that it "must impose penalties and costs on those who are implementing this plan." Israel has framed its assault on Gaza as a targeted effort to defeat Hamas following the October 7 attack, though Israel's own estimates suggest that more than eight in ten people killed in Gaza have been civilians."
An eight-day visit to Israel, the West Bank, Egypt and Jordan included meetings with families of Israeli hostages, residents of a Palestinian village attacked by settlers, and political leaders. The trip followed Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack and occurred amid a conflict that has killed over 64,000 people in Gaza, wounded more than 163,000, and displaced nearly 2 million. The United States has provided over $22 billion in military aid to Israel since the war began. A 19-page report from the visit states there is a moral and legal obligation to stop ongoing ethnic cleansing in Palestine and calls for penalties against those implementing the plan. Israel frames its assault as targeting Hamas, while Israeli estimates suggest that over eighty percent of Gaza's dead are civilians; the United Nations recently endorsed a path to a two-state solution.
Read at Portland Mercury
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