A group of 37 Democrat members of Congress, including former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), is urging the Biden administration to halt the transfer of weapons to Israel following the death of a U.S. citizen in an Israeli airstrike on a food charity convoy.
“In light of this incident, we strongly urge you to reconsider your recent decision to authorize the transfer of a new arms package to Israel, and to withhold this and any future offensive arms transfers until a full investigation into the airstrike is completed,” the Democrats wrote.
“We also urge you to withhold these transfers if Israel fails to sufficiently mitigate harm to innocent civilians in Gaza, including aid workers, and if it fails to facilitate—or arbitrarily denies or restricts the transport and delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza.”
Noting Israel’s insistence that the airstrike was unintentional, the Democrats said that “if this is true, it is a shockingly unacceptable mistake.”
They also asked the Biden administration to conduct a “thorough investigation into this airstrike,” which the White House has said is not going to happen.
Most of the letter’s signatories are from the progressive wing of the congressional Democrats, such as Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), Summer Lee (D-Penn.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.); but the addition of Ms. Pelosi underlines growing support among mainstream Democrats for placing conditions on military aid to Israel.
A spokesperson for Ms. Pelosi said she endorsed the letter because of her strong support for a “comprehensive, independent” investigation into the tragedy.
“Speaker Pelosi is sympathetic to some of the thoughts in the letter, and she feels very strongly that there must be a comprehensive, independent investigation into the horrific killing of the World Central Kitchen heroes,” Aaron Bennett, a spokesperson for the four-term Democrat House leader, said in a statement.
“Speaker Pelosi knows President Biden’s support for Israel and empathy with the innocent civilians in Gaza, and she respects his judgment in how to proceed.”
In addition, President Biden urged the Israeli leader to work toward a deal that would see both Hamas releasing its remaining hostages and Israel pausing its military campaign in the war-torn enclave.