Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Israel did not have the right to kill “thousands and thousands of innocent men, women, and children.”
Sanders said, “I think it’s clear to most people, what Hamas did, and Hamas is an awful terrorist organization, is they slaughtered 1,400 people in cold blood. Israel has a right to defend itself. But what Israel does not, in my view, have a right to do, is to kill thousands and thousands of innocent men, women, and children who had nothing to do with that attack. So the immediate concern, to my mind is we have got to stop the bombing now.”
He added, “You had over 600,000 people pushed out of their homes. Where are they going? They’re staying in United Nations facilities. They are overcrowded. There’s not enough water, there’s not enough food, there’s not enough medicine, there’s not enough fuel. You have a humanitarian disaster. It has to be dealt with right now.”
Anchor Dana Bash said, “How should Israel destroy Hamas, post-attack on these innocent civilians in Israel, without hurting, killing innocent men, women, and children when Hamas is hiding behind them and putting them in danger? how does that work?”
Sanders said, “That is, that is exactly the right question to ask the military experts, which I am not one. But clearly, Israel has a right to defend itself. Hamas’s goal is to destroy Israel. But there’s got to be a better way than killing men, women, and children. the immediate concern is, you have to have a pause in the bombing, take care of the immediate disaster.”
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