BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is speaking out about U.S. messaging this week to Israel to boost humanitarian aid or face weapons sanctions.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned their Israeli counterparts in a letter Sunday restating U.S. policy toward humanitarian aid and arms transfers. It comes amid deteriorating conditions in northern Gaza and an Israeli airstrike on a hospital tent site in central Gaza that killed at least four people and burned others.
Senator Sanders, who last month floated several resolutions that would stop more than $20 billion in U.S. arms sales to Israel, told CNN that the U.S. demands are more than warranted.
“Now, stopping humanitarian aid so that people are starving there. I think that is not where American money should be going and I don’t think a nickel should go to Netanyahu so long as he continues those policies,” Sanders said.
U.S. officials said Israel has 30 days to respond to the requirements.