Sen. Elizabeth Warren argued Friday that there is “ample evidence” that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza.
“It is wrong to starve children in a civilian population in order to try to bend them to your will. It is wrong to drop 2000-pound bombs in densely populated civilian areas,” the Massachusetts Democrat said during an event at the Islamic Center of Boston, after being asked if she believes Israel is committing genocide.
“I think I can make a more effective argument by describing the behavior that is happening and whether I believe it is right or wrong,” Warren continued, according to a video posted on X by a GBH News reporter.
The senator noted that for her, “it is far more important to say what Israel is doing is wrong” rather than making the legal case for “what constitutes genocide.”
But after being pressed by the questioner – “It was a yes or no” – and when some in the crowd accused her of “avoiding the question,” Warren voiced that it is likely Israel will be found by the top United Nations court to have committed genocide in Gaza.
“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,” the Massuchussets Democrat said, referring to a war crimes case brought before the International Court of Justice in the Hague.
“What I’m trying to tell you is I’m trying to get people past a labels argument, which seems to throw up the screen, and to get them to look at the behavior on the ground,” Warren explained for why she was reluctant to call Israel’s military campaign against the terror group genocide.
The progressive senator’s initial support for Israel in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state drew criticism from the left, with several anti-Israel groups leading protests outside her office and hundreds of former staffers demanding that she call for a cease-fire in Gaza.
She first started backtracking on her support for Israel in January, when she argued on X that the US “cannot write a blank check for a right-wing government that’s demonstrated an appalling disregard for Palestinian lives.”
Warren told CNN last week that she would move to block the sale of US fighter jets to Israel after the deaths of seven aid workers in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza
“I think it is clear that Congress has a responsibility to act,” she said. “We have legal tools here. And as I said, we cannot approve the sale of arms to a country that is in violation of our own laws on this. And that includes access to humanitarian relief.”
Israel has vowed to fight Hamas until the terror group is eliminated and the more than 100 hostages taken into Gaza are freed.
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry claims that more than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed since the outbreak of war. The ministry does not distinguish terrorist deaths from civilian ones.
