Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), in a statement Monday, said the “United States should not stand idly by” allowing casualties to rise in Gaza while President Joe Biden lets “precision-guided weaponry” be given to Israel “without any strings attached.”
“The violence in Israel and the Gaza Strip is spiraling out of control,” Omar said in the statement. The congresswoman has blamed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for “at least 1,505 casualties in Gaza, including 200 deaths, 59 of them children.”
She added Israel is going ahead with this, with the “direct funding and military assistance from the United States of America.”
“It would be appalling for the Biden administration to go through with $735 million in precision-guided weaponry to Netanyahu without any strings attached in the wake of escalating violence and attacks on civilians,” Omar continued to say in her statement when referring to Netanyahu.
In her statement, Omar had also called out the attacks from Hamas by mentioning the “indiscriminate” attacks that have killed at least ten Israelis and two children, saying, “to be clear, this is also a war crime.”
“We should be standing unequivocally and consistently on the side of human rights—holding all state and non-state actors accountable for their crimes and using every tool at our disposal to end the violence and bring about peace,” Omar later added.
Omar finished by saying, “We should be affirming the right of all people, regardless of their faith, to have self-determination and equal rights. That includes both Israelis and Palestinians because, yes, Palestinian lives matter.”
Omar also tweeted, “Palestinian lives matter,” later in the day.
Earlier Monday, a report came out saying the Biden administration approved the sale of $735 million in weapons to send into Israel, as the nation continues in a daily battle against Hamas terror rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. The report had cited three people familiar, saying Congress was initially told of the impending sale on May 5, meaning the approved deal was proposed before Hamas began firing on Israel.
Omar has received criticism in the past for her comments against Israel. Recently, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said Omar’s tweets of false information regarding the attacks on Israel seem like the Congresswoman is “acting as the press secretary for Hamas.”
Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) has also criticized Omar’s claims that Israel’s airstrikes “are an act of terrorism.” Last week, Mast took to the House floor to draw some light on Omar’s recent condemnation of Israel in which she accused them of terrorism, including saying, “Palestinians deserve protection,” and “unlike Israel, missile defense programs, such as Iron Dome, don’t exist to protect Palestinian civilians.”
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