Senator Pushes Biden Defense Secretary on Relentless Bombing in Gaza: My Friends ‘Lost Their Four Children’

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) presented Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin with statistics and a personal story of loss when questioning him about Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza.

The senator’s questioning came during a hearing this week on additional US military assistance to Israel and Ukraine, as they fight their respective wars.

“Now, the siege is being accompanied by a ferocious bombing campaign,” Van Hollen said. “In just the first six days of the war, Israel dropped 6,000 bombs in the densely-populated Gaza Strip. Israel has stopped reporting the number of bombs being dropped, but the intense pace has continued.” He pressed on:

Last night, my wife and I learned that someone we know well lost two family members and four of their children killed in bombing in Gaza. So, they are not yet included in the most recent death toll reported by the United Nations yesterday, which says the number of dead has risen to over 8,300 people, 70% of them women and children, including 3,457 children. These are UN figures. According to UN figures, that is about six times more children killed in three weeks in Gaza than the number of children killed in Ukraine during the entire war there.

And if you scale the deaths of those Palestinian children to the United States population, it’s comparable to more than 230,000 American children killed. The executive director of UNICEF, Catherine Russell, said at the current rate, more than 420 children are being killed and injured in the Gaza each day, a number, she said, which should shake us to our core. I agree.

Van Hollen cited the Biden administration’s position “that Israel must comply with the rules of war,” before getting to the crux of his question.

“But as we consider additional American military assistance to Israel’s fight in Gaza, don’t we have an obligation not only to state that expectation, but to ensure that our support is used in a manner than complies with the laws of war and US law?” he asked.

Austin began, “We will continue to emphasize to our allies here the necessity to account for the civilians that are in the battle space. They are a part of the battle space, they must account for them they must do the right thing in terms of taking into account as they do their targeting — ”

Van Hollen interjected, “Mr. Secretary, with respect, my question is a little different. My question is now that we’re talking about— ”

But he was also cut off by the chair, who explained restraints on the Secretary’s time.

Watch the clip above via C-Span.