[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 206 (Thursday, December 14, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5971-S5972]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Israel

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I rise to speak on two issues, but, first, 
I would

[[Page S5972]]

like to ask unanimous consent that the New York Times article entitled 
``We Are No Strangers to Human Suffering, but We've Seen Nothing Like 
the Siege of Gaza'' be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the New York Times, Dec. 11, 2023]

We Are No Strangers to Human Suffering, But We've Seen Nothing Like the 
                             Siege of Gaza

  (By Michelle Nunn, Tjada D'Oyen McKenna, Jan Egeland, Abby Maxman, 
                  Jeremy Konyndyk and Janti Soeripto)

       We are no strangers to human suffering--to conflict, to 
     natural disasters, to some of the world's largest and gravest 
     catastrophes. We were there when fighting erupted in 
     Khartoum, Sudan. As bombs rained down on Ukraine. When 
     earthquakes leveled southern Turkey and northern Syria. As 
     the Horn of Africa faced its worst drought in years. The list 
     goes on.
       But as the leaders of some of the world's largest global 
     humanitarian organizations, we have seen nothing like the 
     siege of Gaza. In the more than two months since the 
     horrifying attack on Israel that killed more than 1,200 
     people and resulted in some 240 abductions, about 18,000 
     Gazans--including more than 7,500 children--have been killed, 
     according to the Gazan health ministry. More children have 
     been reported killed in this conflict than in all major 
     global conflicts combined last year.
       The atrocities committed by Hamas on Oct. 7 were 
     unconscionable and depraved, and the taking and holding of 
     hostages is abhorrent. The calls for their release are urgent 
     and justified. But the right to self-defense does not and 
     cannot require unleashing this humanitarian nightmare on 
     millions of civilians. It is not a path to accountability, 
     healing or peace. In no other war we can think of in this 
     century have civilians been so trapped, without any avenue or 
     option to escape to save themselves and their children.
       Most of our organizations have been operating in Gaza for 
     decades. But we can do nothing remotely adequate to address 
     the level of suffering there without an immediate and 
     complete cease-fire and an end to the siege. The aerial 
     bombardments have rendered our jobs impossible. The 
     withholding of water, fuel, food and other basic goods has 
     created an enormous scale of need that aid alone cannot 
     offset.
       Global leaders--and especially the United States 
     government--must understand that we cannot save lives under 
     these conditions. A significant change in approach from the 
     U.S. government is needed today to pull Gaza back from this 
     abyss.
       For a start, the Biden administration must stop its 
     diplomatic interference at the United Nations, blocking calls 
     for a cease-fire.
       Since the pause in fighting ended, we are again witnessing 
     an exceptionally high level of bombardment, and at increasing 
     ferocity. The few areas left in Gaza that are untouched by 
     bombardment are shrinking by the hour, forcing more and more 
     civilians to seek safety that does not exist. Over 80 percent 
     of 2.3 million Gazans are now displaced. The newest Israeli 
     offensive is now forcing them to cluster on a tiny sliver of 
     land.
       The bombardment is not the only thing brutally cutting 
     lives short. The siege of--and blockades surrounding--Gaza 
     have led to a critical food scarcity, cutoffs of medical 
     supplies and electricity, and a lack of clean water. There is 
     barely any medical care to be found in the enclave and few 
     medications. Surgeons are working by the light of their 
     mobile phones, without anesthetics. They are using dishcloths 
     as bandages. The risk of waves of waterborne and infectious 
     disease will only grow in the increasingly overcrowded living 
     conditions of the displaced.
       One of our colleagues in Gaza recently described their 
     struggle to feed an orphaned infant who had been rescued from 
     the rubble of an airstrike. The baby had not eaten for days 
     after her mother's death. Colleagues could only scrounge up 
     powdered milk--not formula, not breast milk, and not a 
     nutritionally suitable infant food--to help stave off her 
     starvation.
       Before the war, hundreds of truckloads of aid were needed 
     each day to support Gazans' daily existence. Only a trickle 
     of that required aid has made it into Gaza in the two months 
     since the war began. But even if more were allowed in, our 
     work in Gaza is dependent on ensuring our teams can move 
     safely to set up warehouses, shelters, health clinics, 
     schools, and water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure.
       Today our staff members are not safe. They tell us they're 
     making the daily choice of staying with their families in one 
     place so that they can die together or go out to seek water 
     and food.
       Among leaders in Washington, there is constant talk about 
     preparing for the ``day after.'' But if this relentless 
     bombardment and siege continue, there will be no ``day 
     after'' for Gaza. It will be too late. Hundreds of thousands 
     of lives hang in the balance today.
       So far, American diplomacy in this war has not delivered on 
     the goals President Biden has conveyed: protection of 
     innocent civilians, adherence to humanitarian law, more aid 
     delivery. To stop Gaza's apocalyptic free fall, the Biden 
     administration must take tangible measures, as it does in 
     other conflicts, to up the ante with all parties to the 
     conflict and bordering countries.
       Secretary of State Antony Blinken once said of the war in 
     Ukraine that the targeting of heat, water and electricity was 
     a ``brutalization of Ukraine's people'' and ``barbaric.'' The 
     Biden administration should acknowledge that the same holds 
     true in Gaza. While it has announced measures to deter 
     violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, Mr. 
     Blinken and his colleagues should apply similar pressure to 
     stop violence against civilians in Gaza, too.
       The harrowing events unfolding before us are shaping a 
     global narrative that, if unchanged, will reveal a legacy of 
     indifference in the face of unspeakable suffering, bias in 
     the application of the laws of conflict and impunity for 
     actors that violate international humanitarian law.
       The U.S. government must act now--and fight for humanity.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, this article is authored by some 
remarkable people: Michelle Nunn, president and chief executive of 
CARE; Tjada McKenna, chief executive of Mercy Corps; Jan Egeland, 
secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council; Abby Maxman, 
president and chief executive of Oxfam; Jeremy Konyndyk, president of 
Refugees International; and Janti Soeripto, president and chief 
executive of Save the Children U.S.
  I would like to take a minute to read two paragraphs from this essay, 
which I have just entered into the Congressional Record.
  It reads as follows:

       As leaders of some of the world's largest global 
     humanitarian organizations, we have seen nothing like the 
     siege of Gaza. In the more than two months since the 
     horrifying attack on Israel that killed more than 1,200 
     people and resulted in 240 abductions, about 18,000 Gazans--
     including more than 7,500 children--have been killed, 
     according to the Gazan health ministry. More children have 
     been reported killed in this conflict than in all major 
     global conflicts combined last year.
       The atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7 were 
     unconscionable and depraved, and the taking and holding of 
     hostages is abhorrent. The calls for their release are urgent 
     and justified. But the right to self-defense does not and 
     cannot require unleashing this humanitarian nightmare on 
     millions of civilians. It is not a path to accountability, 
     healing, or peace. In no other war we can think of in this 
     century have civilians been so trapped without any avenue or 
     option to escape or save themselves and their children.

  I think this essay is worthy of all my colleagues and for the public 
to read it. I hope they saw it initially in the New York Times and will 
read it now.
  Now I ask consent to go to a separate, unrelated topic.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lujan). Without objection.