Ocasio-Cortez: Biden must end Israeli aid after ‘inexcusable atrocity’ in Rafah

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is also calling on President Joe Biden to immediately stop all US military aid to Israel. She described the bombing of a “tent camp full of innocents” in Rafah on Sunday evening as “an inexcusable atrocity.”

In a statement sent to X on Monday, the New York Democrat said the Israeli military bombing – which killed an estimated 45 people and injured hundreds more, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry – “was a blatant disregard for President Biden’s red line and the International Court of Justice’s call for a ceasefire. It is long past time for the President to make good on his word and end military aid.”

As European leaders reportedly consider sanctions against Israel following the attack, a U.S. National Security Council spokesman on Monday again defended an apparent Israeli “war crime,” saying: “Israel has the right to act against Hamas.”

Local aid groups and witnesses described a bombing that left dozens of children and women incinerated – the victims were burned beyond recognition and had lost limbs – but the unnamed US spokesman justified what others called a “massacre” by saying: “To our knowledge, two senior Hamas terrorists responsible for the attacks on Israeli civilians were killed in this attack.”

The spokesman said only that “Israel must take all precautions to protect the civilian population,” but did not mention that sanctions could be imposed or aid could be cut off. Axiosreports that the Biden administration is “still reviewing” whether the attack crossed the so-called “red line” that Biden said Israel must not cross earlier this month.

Critics of the bombing said it was just Israel’s latest violation of international human rights law and showed that a ceasefire and a halt to the attack were urgently needed, especially after the International Court of Justice last week ordered Israel to “immediately” end its military operations in Rafah. Human rights groups had warned for months that such a military operation would lead to the same bloodbath as that which took place on Sunday.

“Attacking women and children as they cower in their makeshift shelters in Rafah is an egregious atrocity,” said UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, on Monday. “We need concerted global action to stop Israel’s actions now.”

Democrat Pramila Jayapal (Washington), chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, described the attack as “horrific.” “Innocent children, women and the elderly” were killed in the attack.

“This IS an incursion into Rafah,” Jayapal added, “the very incursion that President Biden would not tolerate and that would result in the cutoff of aid. It is high time. No place is safe in Gaza.”

While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to evade responsibility by calling the attack a “tragic mistake,” human rights groups have documented that Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip have repeatedly attacked civilians without fear of consequences.

On Monday, Amnesty International released a new report accusing Israel of “war crimes” in the form of three separate air strikes “that killed 44 Palestinian civilians, including 32 children, in the occupied Gaza Strip last month.”

The bombings – one on the al-Maghazi refugee camp on April 16 and two separate attacks on Rafah on April 19 and 20 – are “further evidence of a broader pattern of war crimes committed by the Israeli military in the occupied Gaza Strip over the past seven months,” Amnesty International said.

The humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which has taken in dozens of victims of Sunday evening’s massacre in Rafah, rejected arguments put forward by US and Israeli government officials that the airstrike was in any way “targeted” or legitimate.

“Civilians are paying the price of this war,” said Samuel Johann, emergency relief coordinator for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Gaza. “This Israeli attack on a residential camp in a so-called ‘safe zone’ in Rafah shows a total disregard for the lives of civilians in Gaza.”