Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told the Senate Armed Services Committee at a hearing on Tuesday that the US lacks evidence that Israel is perpetrating genocide in Gaza.Graeme Sloan/Sipa/AP
The United States on Tuesday rejected charges that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in its war against Hamas.
“We don’t have any evidence of genocide being created,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the Senate Armed Services Committee in a hearing.
Austin told the committee that President Biden’s recent efforts to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into taking measures to protect aid workers has prompted “changes in behavior” from Israel, including the delivery of more humanitarian aid into Gaza. The Associated Press reports that protesters repeatedly interrupted Austin’s appearance, demanding that the administration “stop the genocide.”
Austin’s testimony comes as more Democrats speak out against the war’s devastating impacts on Palestinians and demand that the US halt the transfer of weapons to Israel after seven staffers from the World Central Kitchen were killed by Israeli airstrikes last week. The IDF claimed the WCK convoy had been mistakenly struck. But WCK Founder José Andrés has since rejected that explanation, saying that his colleagues were “deliberately attacked” and “targeted.”
On Friday, 40 Congressional Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), sent Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken a letter urging the administration to withhold new weapons transfers to Israel “until a full investigation into the airstrike is completed.” Pelosi’s decision to sign the letter appeared to mark a shift in her stance on Israel; the former House Speaker had previously recommended that the FBI investigate pro-Palestinian protesters. The letter cited a Washington Post report from late last month revealing that the Biden administration recently authorized sending billions of dollars worth of bombs and fighter jets to Israel. Those weapons included thousands of bombs that have been previously linked to mass casualties in the war. As of Monday, another 16 lawmakers have joined the letter.
The Biden administration’s insistence that genocide is not being carried out in Gaza follows remarks from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) that began circulating on Monday in which Warren said that she believed that the International Court of Justice would soon classify Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide. “If you want to do it as an application of law, I believe that they’ll find that it is genocide, and they have ample evidence to do so,” Warren told a crowd when pressed to address the question of genocide.
A statement Warren’s office subsequently shared with local news outlet GBH News clarifying that Warren was commenting on the ongoing legal proceedings at the ICJ, “not sharing her views on whether genocide is occurring in Gaza.” A spokesperson for Warren didn’t immediately respond to Mother Jones’ request for comment.
