Activists boycotted US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday with slogans demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, as Israeli raids on the Strip continued after the Hamas attack on October 7.
Anti-war protesters raise their "bloody" hands behind U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on President Biden's 6 billion national security supplemental funding request to support Israel and Ukraine, as well as bolster border security, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., October 31, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Blinken was speaking at a hearing in the US Senate on Tuesday devoted to discussing sending urgent aid to Israel and Ukraine.
Capitol Police arrested about 12 people for illegally protesting inside the Senate building.
Banners to stop the war in Gaza
Activists held banners reading “No to war in Gaza and stop the fire”, and some raised their hands symbolically stained with blood, at a time when the death toll from Israeli raids on the Strip reached more than eight thousand, after an attack that killed 1,400 people in Israel.
#عاجل#مجزرة_جباليا#فلسطين#غزة_الآن#الإجتياح_البري#كتائب_االقسام#إسرائیل#ابو_عبيدة#حماس#GazaWar#FreePalestine#Israel#غزة_تنتصر
متظاهرون ضد ممارسات المحتل يقطعون شهادة وزير الخارجية الاميركي في مجلس الشيوخ، ويطالبون بوقف المذابح pic.twitter.com/WlTMQg9tLJ— شبكة سوريا نيوز/ Syria News Networ (@1SyriaNews) October 31, 2023
As the secretary of state debated the administration’s request for massive $105 billion in emergency aid for the wars in Ukraine and Israel, a woman held up a banner reading in English: “Gaza ceasefire” and “No to war funding” before a security officer intervened to remove her from the hall, saying during her expulsion: “More than 500 children have been killed in Gaza.”
As Blinken continued his speech on the need to send aid to Israel, a number of attendees continued to raise their hands painted red, and then another protester held up a banner that read: “No to the blockade of Gaza.” “Stop financing Israel’s crimes,” she shouted, “Cease fire now.”
The aid is well received in the Senate, where the Democratic majority and many Republicans support tying aid to the two countries together, but faces deeper problems in the Republican-led House of Representatives, where the new speaker Mike Johnson has proposed cutting aid to Ukraine and focusing on Israel alone.
“President Biden has rightly affirmed Israel’s commitment to defend itself the way it wants,” Blinken said during his speech, also noting the need for Israel to comply with the laws of war to prevent harm to civilians.
مشاهد أولية لـ #مجزرة_جباليا قبل قليل وأنباء عن سقوط عدد كبير من الضحايا#غزة_تنتصر#أبوعبيدة
#جباليا#مجزرة_جباليا #غزة
#غزة_تحت_القصف #GazaWar pic.twitter.com/rIOaysXu4F— ما يحدث في غزة الان 🇵🇸 (@suh_79) October 31, 2023
During his speech, a number of attendees held signs reading “Stop the war” and shouted “Stop the fire” and “Let Gaza live” as they were taken out of the Council Chamber.
8,525 killed in Gaza due to Israeli army shelling
This comes as the Hamas Health Ministry announced on Tuesday morning that the death toll in the Israeli shelling in the Gaza Strip had risen to 8,525, most of them civilians, including 3,542 children. The UN humanitarian coordinator, Martin Griffiths, described what the people of the Strip have been going through since the war began as “more than catastrophic”.
Al-Hurra correspondent, citing local Palestinian sources, reported that more than 100 people were killed in Israeli shelling on the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, while the Ministry of Health said the number was 50.
Israeli ground forces attacked Hamas militants and positions in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, while the commander of the southern command of the Israeli ground forces operating in the Strip issued an order to launch an “attack on Hamas and terrorist organizations,” according to a statement by IDF spokesman Avichai Adraei.
