Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said Friday that the “current approach is not working” in Gaza, and he called to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into the besieged strip and provide only defensive weapons to Israel going forward.
Kaine said he remains “deeply distressed” by the more than 33,000 Palestinians who have been killed as Israel fights against the militant group Hamas, along with the tens of thousands of displaced Israeli citizens in northern Israel and the roughly 100 Israeli hostages still believed to be held alive in Gaza.
The senator, who sits on both the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, stressed that “more needs to be done to protect innocent life” and get aid into Gaza, where the United Nations has warned of a potential famine in the north.
“The amount of aid allowed by Israel to enter Gaza has been painfully slow and dramatically inadequate,” Kaine said in a statement.
While he acknowledged Israel has opened a new border crossing for aid delivery, he said that “should have happened months ago” and the move “follows a similar pattern of lengthy delay” from Israel.
The comments from Kaine, a key ally of President Biden, represent a growing a shift toward a more critical tone among Democrats as there is mounting concern in the party about the war in Gaza, which began in October following a deadly Hamas attack in Israel that killed more than 1,100 people, with another roughly 250 kidnapped.
Those Democratic concerns rose this week after the Israeli military killed seven aid workers with the charity aid group World Central Kitchen (WCK) in a strike Israel said was a mistake.
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