Senate Resolution 224--Calling for the Urgent Delivery of Humanitarian Aid to Address the Needs of Civilians in Gaza

Floor Speech

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Mr. WELCH. Mr. President, I want to speak about a very uncomfortable but very real tragedy that is unfolding before our very eyes, and that, of course, is starvation in Gaza. It is a tragedy that is totally foreseeable and is totally preventable.

Today, the families and children of Gaza--today, right now--are facing starvation, and this is following a monthslong complete denial of the delivery of food and aid within the borders of Gaza. For more than 2 months, Israeli forces have stopped thousands of tons of food and water and medicine and formula and shelter and other humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza.

The results of that siege have been and are unbearable for the families there. Babies and children are starving to death right now-- right now--in Gaza.

I have behind me the picture of an infant girl in Gaza who starved to death this past week. Her parents could not get the lactose-free formula that she needed to keep her alive. That formula was on one side of the Gaza gate; that starving child was on the other. There was never even an effort to just hand that formula to keep that young girl alive, over the fence or to open the gate.

I want to honor this beautiful infant girl today by sharing her name, and I ask all of us to remember it. Her name is Jinan Iskafi. And to Jinan's parents, on behalf of the U.S. Senate, I would like to say that we--all of us--offer our wholehearted condolences for your unspeakable loss.

I know the Presiding Officer and I know my colleagues on both sides of the aisle are horrified about this suffering and this death of innocent infants. We all agree on this. Babies and children should not starve to death. We are united in our opposition to such unnecessary death and suffering, and I believe all of us do not accept that Jinan's death is a ``cost of war,'' a reality of war that can't be avoided. Jinan's death was totally avoidable. It was totally preventable.

It has been over 2 months since the Israeli Government has been using its power to withhold food, medicine, lifesaving cancer treatments, dialysis systems, formula, and more from starving and suffering families across Gaza. Half a million Palestinians in Gaza are facing starvation, and that number is rising.

The IPC report that was released 1 year ago offered a similarly dire warning. Yet here we are today. And, really, there is no end in sight. More than 70,000 children and more than 17,000 mothers need urgent treatment for acute malnutrition, urgent treatment to prevent starvation. All the while, these trucks that are filled with food and medicine, much of that aid provided by the United States and our allies, are right there across the border.

This situation that folks face in Gaza is unprecedented in contemporary conflict. We cannot have or sanction a government's intentional policy of starvation. Nearly 30,000 babies and children have been killed in Gaza--faces seared into the traumatized hearts of their mothers, their brothers, their uncles. But even today, even more than that number are severely malnourished; even more than that number are facing famine conditions.

Jinan--that name means paradise. Think of the hope of the parents when they named their beautiful child ``paradise.''

It is up to all of us to do all we can to make this the last picture of a baby boy or girl who starves to death in Gaza. And, today, I am offering a resolution with my colleagues that makes a simple point. It notes simply that children are starving to death. They are starving to death as we are here comfortably debating what we think are important issues. And it must be the effort of all of us to do all we can to bring this siege and this war to an immediate end.

I would like to thank my colleagues that joined me today in offering this call for humanity: Senators Bennet, Booker, Duckworth, Durbin, Hirono, Kaine, King, Heinrich, Hickenlooper, Kim, Klobuchar, Markey, Merkley, Murphy, Murray, Sanders, Schatz, Shaheen, Slotkin, Smith, Van Hollen, Warner, Warnock, Warren, and Wyden.

Mr. President, I want to conclude my remarks tonight by sharing one more time the name of this infant girl, and I ask my colleagues to please look at her face, recognize her humanity, and recognize her name: Jinan Iskafi.

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