On Thursday’s “CNN News Central,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) responded to President Joe Biden criticizing the Israelis over the number of civilian casualties in Gaza by saying that the civilian casualties in Gaza “are victims of Hamas as well.” And Hamas could end the conflict and “save their own people” by accepting the ceasefire deal on the table right now.
Wasserman Schultz stated that the Biden administration has supported a temporary ceasefire to ensure the release of hostages and ensuring that Hamas is eliminated and said that “there’s no country on earth that should be expected to live with a terrorist threat on their border, an entity like Hamas that is sworn to Israel’s destruction, sworn to the eradication of the Jewish people, and is still holding 133 hostages, including five Americans and several remains of Americans that need to be released now.”
Co-host Sara Sidner then asked, “There is, of course, a lot of pushback there. And we heard this, actually, from Joe Biden, it’s just the numbers of people killed, the numbers of Palestinians killed, and the devastation that they’re seeing and what’s going to happen in the end. And I do want to show you some numbers that came out that were startling and disturbing, it’s the number of children that were killed…the number of children killed in Gaza in the past four months is now more than the number of children killed in conflicts over the past four years around the world. Do you think something like this and seeing those images will change the Biden administration’s policy towards Israel, push it to do something different?”
Wasserman Schultz answered, “It is devastating that there are children being killed, that anyone is being killed. But let’s remember that these are victims of Hamas as well. This entire conflict could end tomorrow. Let’s remember, Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 1,200 Israelis slaughtered, raped. You have 250 of their people held hostage, including six Americans that were held hostage. It’s absolutely essential that Hamas release the hostages. And, at the same time, we are at the table every day because of our close relationship with Israel, working together, side-by-side, to make sure we can have a ceasefire with [the] release of the hostages negotiated, while also supporting Israel’s absolute right to defend its people and to ensure that this threat is eradicated. Remember, Hamas, after October 7, said, October 7 was the first time and that there’d be a second, third, and a thousandth time. That is not a tolerable situation that any country should expect to have to live with.”
Sidner then said, “But the argument there is it isn’t tolerable to have bombs raining from the sky and killing up to 30,000 people. That’s not Hamas, that is the Israelis who are doing that to Gaza.”
Wasserman Schultz responded, “Well, they’re engaged in a war. War is horrific. But there is a way out of the war, where Hamas needs to accept the deal that’s on the table. Israel and the United States and Hamas representatives and Qatar, they’ve been negotiating over how we can get to a ceasefire and Hamas needs to accept that deal and release the hostages and save their own people who they have subjected to this war.”
Sidner then pointed out Hamas also didn’t build shelters for their own people. Wasserman Schultz agreed and added that Hamas uses its civilians as shields.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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