By: Nick Pope, Daily Caller News Foundation
Members of the “Squad” House Democrats released statements on Saturday’s carnage in Israel calling for a ceasefire after Hamas terrorists murdered hundreds of people and abducted dozens.
Democratic Reps. Cori Bush of Missouri, Jamaal Bowman of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota all released statements calling for de-escalation in the wake of one of the largest single-day attacks against Israel in its history. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, a Palestinian-American who called Israel an apartheid state as recently as June, also released a statement on the attacks, which reports suggest may also have resulted in the murder or abduction of Americans.
An unknown number of Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel early Saturday morning via air, land and sea before going on killing sprees in the country’s southern region, according to CBS News. The terrorists reportedly abducted Israelis, including children and the elderly, murdered Israeli citizens in the streets, went door-to-door looking for targets and returned to the Gaza Strip with scores of civilians as hostages, according to NDTV and footage posted to the internet.
Graphic videos of the attacks circulated on the internet Saturday, including footage of a stripped woman being paraded through the streets of Gaza in a pickup truck while onlookers cheered and spat on her dead body. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared a state of war, and the country’s air forces pounded the Gaza Strip with overnight airstrikes in preparation for a potential invasion by its ground forces, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Tlaib said she is grieving the lives lost on both sides, but did not explicitly condemn the Hamas attacks in her statement, which was reportedly obtained by Detroit News but has not yet appeared on her social media accounts or website. Tlaib called for an end to U.S. financial support for the Israeli “apartheid government,” also stating that “lifting the blockade, ending the occupation and dismantling the apartheid system that creates the suffocating, dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance” by Palestinian factions are necessary to stop the violence, according to the statement obtained by the Detroit News.
In response to the vicious attacks against Israel, Bush acknowledged the loss of life on both sides and condemned the attacks before calling for “an immediate ceasefire” and stating that “we must do our part to end this violence and trauma by ending U.S. government support for Israel military occupation and apartheid.”
Bowman condemned the attacks before calling for an end to the blockade of the Gaza Strip, in which Egypt is also a participant.
Pressley came out against the “devastating” Hamas attacks before calling for “an immediate ceasefire and de-escalation” to the conflict. Similarly, Ocasio-Cortez said that she condemns the attacks “in the strongest possible terms” before calling for “an immediate ceasefire and de-escalation.”
Omar condemned the Hamas attacks as “horrific” before calling for a “de-escalation and ceasefire” to end the “back and forth cycle” of violence in the region. In a subsequent tweet, Omar said that “Gaza doesn’t have shelters or an iron dome and to please pray for them.”
Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system is in place to guard against rocket barrages fired indiscriminately by terrorist groups like Hamas.
The coming war between Hamas and Israel appears likely to be bloody and long, Netanyahu said.
None of the House Democrats named in this story responded immediately to requests for comment.
This article was updated to include the latest statement from Rep. Talib.
Related Story: Rashida Tlaib Attends Anti-Israel Art Show Glorifying Palestinian ‘Martyrs’
