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Floor Speech
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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. I have addressed this before, but today I rise with a message that is both straightforward and urgent: Humanitarian aid must immediately reach the civilian population in Gaza.
As one pediatric doctor, the leader of the ward at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, said, ``There is no one in Gaza now outside the scope of famine, not even myself.'' This is the pediatrician who leads the ward. ``I am speaking to you as a health official, but I, too, am searching for flour to feed my family.''
The New York Times notes:
The World Food Program, an arm of the United Nations, said this week that the hunger crisis in Gaza [has] reached, in their words, ``new and astonishing levels of desperation, with a third of the population''--
That is right, one-third--
``not eating for multiple days in a row.''
The suffering we are seeing every day is unacceptable. More measures can be and must be taken to allow Palestinian families to access basic necessities. Those include food, medicine, and shelter.
At the same time, we must focus on achieving a cease-fire as soon as possible, one that would release hostages held by Hamas and allow displaced Palestinians to return home.
Ultimately, what so many of us want to see is a lasting peace and a two-state solution, but that cannot happen when people are starving. As we pursue that goal, however, it is clear that the system for distributing aid that is now in place, run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, is nowhere near adequate. Yesterday, more than 100 nongovernmental organizations issued an urgent call to action, including CARE, Mercy Corps, Oxfam, Save the Children, and so many more.
Acute malnutrition is rising. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in recent weeks while seeking food, most in the vicinity of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution sites and others on the routes of aid convoys. This is simply unacceptable.
Since the collapse of the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in March, the humanitarian situation has only worsened. Many of us have advocated repeatedly for a change in course. In May, I joined 24 of my colleagues to call on President Trump to press for the immediate resumption of neutral and impartial humanitarian assistance, access, and distribution that fully meets the needs of innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza. That same month, more than 40 colleagues and I sponsored a resolution calling for the urgent delivery of additional aid to Gaza.
And a few weeks ago, when Prime Minister Netanyahu and his delegation visited the Senate to meet with a bipartisan group of Senators, I attended, and I attended for one reason in my capacity as No. 3 in the Democratic leadership, and that was to raise the issue of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
And I did that. I expressed my strong opposition to cutting off vital humanitarian aid, arguing that more aid groups should be allowed into Gaza at more entry points and also conveyed my opposition to the continued displacement of Palestinians.
I say to my colleagues: You can support the people of Israel. You can be horrified and condemn, as all of us did, the terrorist attack, but we cannot continue to allow people to starve.
I believe U.S. diplomacy must focus on an urgent return to a cease- fire, the release of remaining hostages held by Hamas, and an increase in humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. And following a cease-fire, we must pursue steps to end the war, establish postwar security and government arrangements in Gaza, and ultimately, as I noted, reach a two-state solution, an outcome I have long supported and a view I have conveyed in the past, strongly, to Israeli and Palestinian leadership in meetings here in Washington, DC; in meetings in Israel; and a meeting in the West Bank.
In the immediate term, lives are being lost on a daily basis--kids, innocents--and the Government of Israel must change course.
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