'Palestinians are also human beings’: US lawmaker

By Diyar Guldogan

WASHINGTON (AA) - A US congresswoman slammed her colleagues on Thursday who are silent about Israel’s killing of Palestinians, including babies, in the Gaza Strip.

"We are living through one of, again, the most documented horrific crimes against humanity in our history. These are children who did not live to see their first birthday. We cannot normalize this," Rashida Tlaib said on the floor of the House of Representatives.

Her remarks came after the Gaza Ministry of Health released a 649-page document with the name of every identified Palestinian killed in the Gaza Strip. It listed 34,344 Palestinians killed by Israeli attacks, publishing their names, ages, genders and ID numbers.

"My colleagues continue to be silent. I wonder if it's because these babies are Palestinian? They're children, that's it. They're children. I can't believe I have to consistently remind my colleagues that Palestinians are also human beings," said Tlaib.

She said the first 14 pages of the document are names of babies.

"I wish my colleagues would look at it who were under the age of 1 when they were killed. Fourteen pages of babies names that 710 babies that the Israeli government has murdered. This is not self-defense. This is genocide," she added.

She also criticized many of her colleagues who continue to send bombs to Israel. "This is not working tirelessly for a cease-fire. If the Biden-Harris administration wants a cease-fire, they should stop sending the bombs and the weapons. We must stop arming and funding genocide."

Israel has continued a brutal offensive on Gaza following a Hamas attack last Oct. 7, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.

Nearly 41,300 people, mostly women and children, have since been killed and more than 95,500 injured, according to local health authorities.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel faces accusations of genocide for its actions in Gaza at the International Court of Justice.