[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 190 (Friday, December 20, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7249-S7251]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                  Gaza

  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, we are all here, getting ready to leave 
after we fund the government and return home to our families. We get 
pretty excited about this time of year thinking about the holidays to 
come. We are heading home to our loved ones. We know there will be 
extended family gatherings. There will be games with the children. 
There will be exchanges of presents. There will be food. There will be 
awesome food--ham, turkey, all kinds of wonderfully crafted vegetable 
dishes--and there will be so much that we can drink. Oh, yes. There 
will be wine varieties. There will eggnog; perhaps some of it will be 
spiked. There will be carbonated apple juice or cranberry juice for the 
kids. We will put it into glasses, and we will have a toast. We will 
really celebrate life. We will celebrate life with a roof over our 
heads, with our loved ones close by, and with our cupboards well-
stocked.
  Also in these holidays, there will be time for reflection in every 
religious tradition. For those of us who are fortunate to have that 
roof over our heads and food in the cupboards and our loved ones close 
by, we will recognize that, for so many, that is not the case. For so 
many here in the United States, who by virtue of economic conditions or 
the ravages of disease or mental afflictions, they will not have a roof 
over their heads; they may not have family members close by; they may 
not even have a cupboard, let alone one that is well-stocked. We will 
ponder our responsibility to try to improve those conditions.
  We will ponder the landscape across the broader globe, knowing that 
in many places, people have been so ravaged by natural disasters, so 
affected by conflict and war. I am sure we will see programs and 
commentary about Sudan, where millions have been displaced by civil war 
and by drought and by famine; or in Burma, where so many are suffering 
escalating violence; or in Ukraine, where people are brutalized by 
Putin's invasion, in the efforts to defend their country.
  No matter where you look, there is no shortage of suffering, but the 
place that weighs the heaviest on my heart this season is the Middle 
East. We have the families of Israel continuing to grieve the losses of 
1,200 of their own loved ones on October 7, 2023. We have families in 
Israel who continue to not know the fate of their loved ones taken 
hostage--whether they are alive, whether they are dead, whether they 
are being cared for, whether they are suffering. Will they be released? 
And there will be an empty chair at the table.
  The victims in Israel weigh on my heart, but the Palestinian victims 
also weigh on my heart, individuals in the West Bank--Palestinians who 
have suffered from decades of occupation, of the economic constraints 
and indignity that come from checkpoints, that come from land lost to 
settlements and to outposts, to olive orchards bulldozed down, to lives 
lost and injuries suffered from increasing violence by settlers against 
Palestinian villagers.

  But, by far, the most devastated communities are the Palestinian 
communities in Gaza because of the extraordinary level of devastation. 
And it weighs on my heart because of the connection between the United 
States and Israel, our close connection with our ally, where we share 
security strategies, where we provide economic and military assistance. 
We share intelligence on the issues of the world. We are so closely 
connected that we are connected to the devastation in Gaza.
  Since October 7, 2023, more than 45,000 Palestinians in Gaza have 
died. More than 100,000 have been severely injured. The vast bulk of 
those injured and those who have died are women and children and 
seniors--people who have no connection whatsoever to Hamas, which 
conducted the raids on October 7 of 2023. The devastation is massive.
  This same picture, taken in North Gaza, could be almost copied for 
community after community from north to south of Gaza.
  Of the 2.1 million people, the Palestinians in Gaza, some 1.9 
million--almost everyone, that is--are without a home, either because 
their home has been blasted into smithereens or because they have been 
forcibly moved to a different location within Gaza--forced relocation.
  A year ago, Senator Van Hollen and I went to Rafah gate. We had hoped 
to get inside Gaza to see with our own eyes and talk to people and 
understand better the devastation, but what we heard a year ago was 
that all of the fundamentals for a normal community were devastated. 
Shelter I have already spoken to--the 1.9 million people relocated 
either because they were forced to flee or because their homes no 
longer existed; that the phone networks were down; that the cell 
networks were down; that the internet networks were down. Even if they 
were up, people had very little opportunity to recharge their cell 
phones because there wasn't electricity. So the power was down. The 
transportation was down because many roads were impassable. Food was in 
short supply, driving malnutrition a year ago. Clean water was often 
unavailable a year ago.
  A year ago, Senator Van Hollen and I could not get into Gaza. 
Reporters have not been allowed into Gaza except for very carefully 
monitored, short visits monitored by the Netanyahu government. 
Humanitarian organizations were having a hard time getting in and often 
had to do a very careful exchange of an exact number for an exact 
number coming out.
  But as we stood there at that gate, a couple of doctors came out, and 
I spent some time talking to them. One of them was a burn specialist, 
who described how hard it was to treat many of the massive burns he had 
witnessed. The other was a bone doctor, and he said: I can treat the 
broken bones, but I can't necessarily treat the soft tissue damage that 
comes from the shock waves that emanate from all of the explosions 
taking down the buildings. The impact, he said, of a blast's radius in 
terms of the shock waves was even greater than the physical damage.
  We were able to talk to humanitarian organizations of aid workers who 
had been in Gaza, and they said: Understand this--that we are seasoned 
workers who have been in the worst places in the world. We have been in 
Yemen. We have been on the frontlines of Ukraine. We have been in 
Sudan. Nothing compares to the devastation in Gaza.
  That was a year ago.
  I was particularly affected by hearing about the challenges of 
mothers. Mothers receive our attention particularly when they are 
carrying babies because all our efforts go to making sure that 
delivery--that child will come safely into the world, healthy into the 
world, and that the mother will be cared for. But what we heard from 
the humanitarian organizations was that hunger was driving malnutrition 
and malnutrition made people more susceptible to disease, and for 
mothers, it meant increases in miscarriages, increases in stillbirths, 
increases in very low birth weight babies, increases in the difficulty 
of mothers' breastfeeding their children because they were too 
malnourished to produce milk, and babies getting sick because when 
formula was used, if available, the water might be contaminated.
  Think about the children you have brought into the world or that your 
wife or your partner has brought into the world and how horrific it 
would be to see those circumstances.
  This time of year is a time of year in my spiritual tradition where 
we think a lot about the challenges Mary went through. She and Joseph 
were traveling from Galilee to Bethlehem, and they were traveling there 
at the time that Mary was very pregnant with Jesus, because a census 
had been ordered by Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus, and they were 
required to be there and report to Joseph's ancestral home of 
Bethlehem. Traveling the roads when one is pregnant is very hard. And 
then they weren't able to find a room in Bethlehem, and Mary went into 
labor and delivered in a barn--not ideal circumstances.
  Because of this time of year and because we think about that story so 
much, the mothers in Gaza--their conditions are so much worse. It is 
something we can connect with. And now the children in Gaza are 
entering their second year in this devastation. Some have some format 
of school, but many do not.

[[Page S7250]]

  Now, we here in America know--we know--what COVID did to interrupt 
the education of our children. Some did well with tutors. Many suffered 
isolation. Many suffered setbacks in what they learned. Many are still 
carrying that challenge forward as they seek education. So we can also 
connect to the children of Gaza who have had their education, their 
lives so disrupted--lives disrupted by a lack of food and water, 
instability, a lack of safety.
  Two weeks ago, an ambassador from the Middle East drew attention to a 
part of Gaza in worse shape than the rest of Gaza, and he referred to 
this area. Specifically, it is North Gaza. And where is North Gaza? You 
have northern Gaza and southern Gaza separated by the Netzarim Corridor 
that travels from Israel to the Mediterranean Sea. But then within 
northern Gaza, you have Gaza City and then communities: Beit Lahia, 
Beit Hanoun, and Jabalia. In those communities, he said, there are 
65,000 people who are starving to death because food cannot get in--
65,000 people starving.
  We know food conditions have been horrific in Gaza for a year; but in 
this case, it is sustained prevention of food getting in, and people 
are starving. He asserted this, so I asked a visiting official from 
another Middle Eastern country about this. And he emphasized, yes. Yes, 
he said, there are, in fact, 65,000 people or more starving in northern 
Gaza, isolated from the rest of the world.
  OK. Well, that is two officials. But that is a big thing to say. But 
then this came out, ``Gaza Humanitarian Access Snapshot #8.'' It is 
cosigned by 30 organizations, organizations like Save the Children, 
like CARE, like Mercy Corps, and 27 others.
  What do they say in this report? They say.

     . . . leaving 65,000-75,000 people trapped without food, 
     water, electricity or reliable healthcare.

  That is a direct quote from the report of these 30 humanitarian 
organizations.
  It goes on to say:

       Humanitarian aid has been almost entirely blocked for 60 
     days.

  It goes on to say that ``only three hospitals remain partially 
operational with restricted access.'' Very little healthcare.
  It says:

       The population faces imminent risks of disease, starvation, 
     and violence without urgent relief.

  Without urgent relief.
  I called up Cindy McCain. We know Cindy well here. Cindy McCain is 
executive director of the World Food Programme. She is the spouse of 
our former deceased colleague John McCain. I said to her: Is this 
right? Are 65,000 people isolated in north Gaza for week after week 
after week, no deliveries of food or virtually none? She said, ``Yes.'' 
She said, yes, that is the case.
  She didn't just say it to me. She also talked about Gaza more 
broadly. She said we can no longer sit by and just allow these people 
to starve to death. Children, especially, she said, are starving to 
death. The height of malnutrition, the height of hunger in that region 
is unbelievably horrible.
  In November, the United Nations made 41 attempts to deliver aid to 
this section of north Gaza, to the besieged people trapped in north 
Gaza. But 37 of the 41 attempts were blocked by the Netanyahu 
government; four other deliveries were not blocked but were troubled.
  Here is the situation. A year ago, we heard that if there isn't 
sufficient food, chaos will ensue because starving people will storm 
whatever truck there is that has food because they are desperate. The 
trucks won't be able to make it to the warehouse. Or if they do make it 
to the warehouse, the warehouse will be sacked.
  We are now in the very condition that the humanitarian organizations 
told us would happen. So very little food is being allowed in; and what 
is being allowed in can't be distributed in any significant, organized 
fashion, and people are starving. Even if those four truckloads could 
have been at the warehouse and distributed, there is too little food--a 
microscopic amount of food--for the 65,000 people who are there.
  So here we are now. Gaza's destruction--this destruction that we saw 
in the previous chart, this destruction--this is carried out by 
American bombs. This is how we are complicit in this situation. It is 
our munitions that are being used by the Israel Defense Forces to 
produce this result. We are connected; and, therefore, we are morally 
connected to the situation in Gaza.
  Our weapon packages have included 50,000 120-mm high explosive mortar 
rounds. Our provisions have included more than 32,000 120-mm tank 
rounds, more than 14,000 2,000-pound bombs, and 6,500 500-pound bombs, 
and hundreds of 250-pound bombs.
  Think about a 2,000-pound bomb. This is like the biggest bomb. The 
New York Times described how, when it is dropped, it is designed to 
break fortified military bunkers. It will create a massive crater 40 to 
50 feet wide. And when it explodes, it will shatter ``into razor-sharp 
fragments that can kill or incapacitate people over several hundred 
feet.''
  You kind of get the feeling how any bomb like that is indiscriminate. 
Whether it is dropped on the intended building or it falls somewhere 
further afield, it kills a tremendous number of civilians. We are 
providing those bombs.
  The Biden administration suspended the delivery of 200-pound bombs to 
the Netanyahu government because of that and also suspended the 500-
pound bombs. But the Wall Street Journal reported in July that the 
delivery of the 500-pound bombs had been restored.
  The point here is we continue to be deeply connected and tied to this 
devastation in Gaza. It is not just the devastation of civilians, it is 
also American lives, and it is also international law.
  National Security Memorandum 20--a process that was created because 
of the work of my colleague Senator Van Hollen, says this:
       It is reasonable to assess that defense articles covered . 
     . . have been used by Israeli security forces . . . 
     inconsistent with its International Humanitarian Law [and 
     the] obligations for mitigating civilian harm.

  So what have we done? It was last February--now 10 months ago--that a 
group of us called on the United States for ``Operation Gaza Relief.'' 
We must at least provide massive amounts of humanitarian aid so people 
are not starving in Gaza. We have that responsibility.
  If we are urging Israel to provide the aid, which is the best 
strategy, but they do not do it, we have the obligation to provide it. 
And we did so little.
  We have the most massive sealift capability in the world, and we 
didn't use a single bit of it to address the humanitarian crisis in 
Gaza.
  We have two hospital ships that have a thousand beds each, and we did 
not move them into the Mediterranean to help out. We did not encourage 
other nations to provide their hospital ships.
  We did do one modest thing. We did a floating pier that operated 
intermittently from May to July that had all kinds of problems breaking 
up in the waves. It provided, ultimately--at the best estimate--enough 
food for people of Gaza for a week, not at all addressing the magnitude 
of the challenge.
  We had a responsibility to provide help, independent of any other 
cessation of hostilities, and we failed.
  Yes, we pressed for a cessation of hostilities. We pressed for a 
ceasefire. And I applaud the administration for doing so. But while 
that failed, we also failed. We, America, failed in our responsibility 
to provide relief to the humanitarian suffering, on which we are so 
closely connected.
  Our own law says that if our aid is impeded--as it has been by the 
Netanyahu government--that we cannot provide arms. But we have been 
violating our own law.
  620I says:

       No assistance shall be furnished under this Act or the Arms 
     Export Control Act to any country when it is made known to 
     the President that the government of such country prohibits 
     or other otherwise redirects, directly or indirectly, the 
     transport or delivery of United States humanitarian 
     assistance.

  We have a moral responsibility, and we have a legal responsibility. 
So we must--must--do more. We must do more in the remaining weeks of 
this administration. We must do more in the opening year of the next 
administration, because these issues of moral responsibility, these 
issues of international law, do not depend on who sits in the Oval 
Office.

[[Page S7251]]

  So as we stand here about to go home and celebrate with our big 
plates of food and our full pitchers of wine, as we read our cards 
calling for peace in the world, as we offer our prayers, let us not 
forget those who suffer in the Middle East. Let us not forget the 
families who lost their family members on October 7 in Israel. Let us 
not forget the families in Israel whose family members are still held 
hostage. Let us not forget those on the West Bank suffering the 
inflictions of local violence. But most of all, let us not forget the 
victims in Gaza and do all we can, under our moral responsibility, 
under our legal responsibility, to come to their aid.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Van Hollen). The Senator from California.
  Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to waive the 
mandatory quorum call.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.