Hamas criticizes the US administration for misleading Congress regarding the ongoing transfer of American arms to Israel and withholding essential information on the blockade of Gaza, where over 2 million Palestinians are under relentless Israeli airstrikes.
The Palestinian resistance group in a statement on Wednesday slammed the US administration, specifically President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, for complicity in the ongoing genocide against thousands of Palestinians, the Arabic-language Quds Press International News Agency reported.
In a press statement on Wednesday, Hamas said a move by Blinken to deliberately conceal details of Israeli military crimes in Gaza from Congress, for fear that it would impact arms supplies to the occupation entity’s army, coupled with the policy of starvation pursued by Israel violated international law.
“This criminal conduct by Blinken calls for … members of the US Congress and US judicial bodies to investigate the matter. It has resulted in the deaths of thousands of our people, either through direct killing with American weapons or by colluding with the policies of starvation and deprivation carried out by the criminal Zionist entity, in blatant violation of basic principles of international humanitarian law,” it added.
Hamas also urged international judicial bodies, particularly the International Criminal Court (ICC), to heed recent reports and initiate legal proceedings against Blinken.
In a hearing held in May, Blinken indicated that Israel is not imposing any restrictions on the transport or delivery of US humanitarian aid to Palestinians.
He made this statement despite the fact that two top US agencies responsible for humanitarian aid within the US government, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State department’s refugees bureau, have disclosed that Israel is intentionally preventing the delivery of essential food and medical supplies to Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
USAID said in a 17-page memo to Blinken in April that the body had documented several examples of Israel blocking aid into the besieged Gaza Strip, including its killing of aid workers, destroying agricultural structures, bombing ambulances and hospitals, and turning away trucks filled with food and medicine.
USAID reported in its memo that Israel’s “arbitrary denial, restriction, and impediments of US humanitarian assistance” created conditions for “one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in the world.”
Following the leak of individual memos from two agencies revealing Blinken's efforts to downplay Israeli war crimes, calls for his resignation have intensified, due to violations of both US law and humanitarian standards.
“Antony Blinken lied to Congress even though he knew Israel was deliberately starving Gaza - all to keep arming the genocide. We demand that @SecBlinken resign and that @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris stop illegally arming Israel NOW!” wrote Jill Stein, an American Jew, who is the Green Party's presidential nominee in the upcoming US election, on X.
The US law prohibits Washington from supplying arms to any parties, which has consistently hindered the flow of US-supported humanitarian aid. Nevertheless, the United States remains the largest arms provider to Israel, despite Tel Aviv's clear disregard for both American and international laws.
Nearly a year into the Israeli regime’s Washington-backed bloody onslaught on Gaza, the Tel Aviv regime has so far killed 41,495 Palestinians, and injured 96,006 others. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under rubble.