Nancy Pelosi, former House speaker and a key ally of Joe Biden, signed a letter on Friday from dozens of congressional Democrats to the
president and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urging a halt to weapons transfers to Israel.
The letter called on the Biden administration to conduct its own probe into an Israeli airstrike that killed seven staff of the aid group World Central Kitchen on Monday.
“In light of the recent strike against aid workers and the ever-worsening humanitarian crisis, we believe it is unjustifiable to approve these weapons transfers,” the letter said. It was signed by Pelosi and 36 other Democrats including Representatives Barbara Lee, Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The letter also calls on the US to withhold future arms transfers pending a US investigation into the airstrike on the World Central Kitchen humanitarian workers or if Israel “fails to sufficiently mitigate harm to innocent civilians in Gaza”.
Israel’s military assault on Gaza, which followed Palestinian Islamist group Hamas’ October 7 attack, has come under increasing international criticism as the Gaza health ministry has reported more than 33,000 people have died in the war and the narrow coastal enclave suffers widespread famine.
Support from Pelosi, a veteran member of Biden’s Democratic Party, for stopping the transfer of weapons to Israel showed that the view is increasingly becoming mainstream in the party.
Meanwhile, Israel has dismissed two officers and formally reprimanded senior commanders after an inquiry into the aid workers’ deaths found serious errors and breaches of procedure. Biden held a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday in which he said Israel needed to do more to protect civilians or the U.S. would change its policy.
The Israeli offensive in Gaza following Hamas attack on Israel has killed over 32,000 people – mostly women and children and has displaced nearly all its 2.3 million population and led to genocide allegations that Israel denies.
Source: Reuters
