34 Republican senators urge Biden to stop plan to welcome Gazan refugees

By Diyar Guldogan

WASHINGTON (AA) - A total of 34 Republican senators demanded US President Joe Biden stop his potential plan to accept Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip.

"Your administration’s reported plan to accept Gazan refugees poses a national security risk to the United States," senators led by Joni Ernst wrote in a letter to Biden.

The letter came amid reports that the Biden administration is considering bringing some Palestinians from Gaza to the US as refugees.

Senior officials across several federal US agencies have discussed the practicality of different options to resettle Palestinians from Gaza who have immediate family members who are American citizens or permanent residents, a report said, citing internal federal government documents, CBS News reported Tuesday.

"With more than a third of Gazans supporting the Hamas militants, we are not confident that your administration can adequately vet this high-risk population for terrorist ties and sympathies before admitting them into the United States," the senators wrote.

The senators said they are "frustrated" that the Biden administration is pushing ahead with a plan to evacuate Gazans from the Strip when there are still American citizens held hostage by Hamas.

"We demand that your administration cease planning for accepting Gazan refugees until you adequately answer our concerns and focus your attention instead on securing the release of US hostages held by Hamas," they added.

Israel has waged an unrelenting offensive on the Palestinian enclave since a cross-border attack by Hamas last Oct. 7, which killed some 1,200 people.

Nearly 34,600 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and 77,800 injured amid mass destruction and severe shortages of necessities.

More than six months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.