As Israel’s blockade of food and aid to the Gaza Strip enters its third month, Senate Democrats are calling on the White House to step in.
Sen. Peter Welch, one of the most outspoken Senate Democrats on the war, is introducing a new resolution this week to express the chamber’s concern for Palestinians in Gaza and call for the White House to “urgently use all diplomatic tools” to facilitate hostage releases, end the blockade on the delivery of food and aid to Gaza and stop the war.
The resolution already has the backing of 28 other Senate Democrats.
“It’s been over two months since the Israeli government has been using its power to withhold food, medicine, lifesaving cancer treatments, dialysis systems, formula, and more from starving and suffering families across Gaza,” Welch said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “Half-a-million Palestinians in Gaza are facing starvation, and that number is rising.”
“We cannot have or sanction a government-intentional policy of starvation,” he added.
The text of Welch’s resolution, first shared with NOTUS, focuses specifically on restarting the flow of food and aid to Gaza, which has been stopped since March.
The Senate resolution comes as President Donald Trump is in the Middle East on his first foreign trip of his second term. Many of the same senators co-sponsoring Welch’s resolution sent a letter to the White House last week urging Trump to press harder for peace and humanitarian aid in Gaza.
But Welch’s resolution is unlikely to get a vote on the Republican-controlled Senate floor, despite the continued concern of some Democrats about the situation in Gaza.
After a ceasefire fell apart in mid-March, Israel has continued its offensive in Gaza. In a goodwill gesture to the United States, Hamas released the last living Israeli American hostage in Gaza, Edan Alexander, on Monday. Trump said Wednesday he hopes to see all the hostages released “as a stepping stone to peace.”
Democrats, for their part, remain divided on how best to respond to Israel’s Gaza policies. Last month, only 15 of them voted in support of a measure to stop military aid to Israel.
The Welch resolution has much broader support. Among the 29 Democrats sponsoring the legislation, Sens. Dick Durbin, Amy Klobuchar and Cory Booker — all members of Democratic leadership — and ranking committee Democrats Jeanne Shaheen, Brian Schatz, Mark Warner, Bernie Sanders and Patty Murray are all signed on.
Welch also has the support of a number of organizations. Friends Committee on National Legislation, Oxfam America and the pro-Israel group J Street are all backing the resolution. As is Anera, an unaffiliated nonprofit that provides humanitarian aid to refugees in Palestinian territories, Jordan and Lebanon.
“We call on the U.S. government in the strongest terms to act swiftly, using all the leverage at its disposal, to urgently permit humanitarian organizations to deliver aid into Gaza,” Sean Carroll, the president and CEO of Anera, said in a press release. “This resolution is a critical step in the right direction.”
Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of J Street, said Welch’s resolution “comes at a moment of moral reckoning, as conditions in Gaza have become even more unbearable.”
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Helen Huiskes is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow. Ursula Perano is a reporter at NOTUS.