A “more targeted” Israeli offensive in Gaza is “vital,” influential Democratic US Senator Chris Murphy said in an interview with AFP on Wednesday, saying the number of Palestinian civilians killed was “too high.”
“I fear that if Israel’s strategy and ultimate goal is to defeat Hamas, this rate of civilian casualties, which certainly has a moral cost, also has a strategic price,” warned the elected official, a member of the Committee on Senate Foreign Affairs.
According to the latest Hamas Health Ministry report, 10,569 people, mostly civilians, including 4,324 children, were killed by Israeli bombings in the Gaza Strip.
Along with about 20 of his colleagues, Senator Chris Murphy sent a letter to US President Joe Biden, the leader of his party, on Wednesday, calling on Israel to “respect the laws of war” and “learn from the mistakes” of the United States in the fight against terrorism.
“Many terrorists create”
“We’ve learned that if you’re too lenient on civilian deaths, you end up killing a lot of terrorists, but you also end up creating a lot of terrorists,” estimated AFP’s Chris Murphy.
“I think that the number of civilians killed is too high and that a more targeted offensive would be important and vital,” the elected official said.
AFP
The senator argued that Israeli attacks “need to be controlled more by ground units than by air strikes,” which he said is one of the solutions to limit civilian casualties.
The elected official who represents the small state of Connecticut, which borders New York, in the US Senate is, like the president, against a ceasefire.
Young people and Arab Americans voting?
“It takes two to engage in a ceasefire, and Hamas has made it clear that it intends to attack Israel again,” he argued. “A ceasefire would allow Hamas to regroup and begin preparing its next attack,” the elected official argued.
On October 7, Hamas commandos from the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory under Israeli blockade, entered southern Israel and carried out a bloody attack on civilians on a scale and with violence unseen since Israel’s founding in 1948 has taken place.
According to Israeli authorities, more than 1,400 people were killed on the Israeli side that day, mostly civilians massacred by the Islamist movement.
“I have said loud and clear that Israel must reduce civilian casualties,” said Chris Murphy. “But I also want to make it clear that Hamas has put itself in a position and has put civilians in a position where they are in danger,” he said.
A year before the American presidential election, aren’t the Democrats afraid of losing the support of young people, Arabs and American Muslims with this speech?
The country was rocked this weekend by large demonstrations calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, with some participants waving signs with the message: “Joe the genocider, you have lost my vote.”
“I don’t think we need to worry about elections when we make important decisions about foreign policy, war and peace,” said Chris Murphy.
And added: “I think the president should do what he thinks is right for the national security of the United States and leave the policy to others.”