New Hampshire senator on famine crisis in Gaza
(CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday while visitng Amman, Jordan about the famine crisis in Gaza.
According to Brennan, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) technically confirmed Friday that there's a "man-made famine underway in Gaza," with Jordan calling it a "'shameful failure of humanity' that Israel is starving Palestinians with impunity" as well as calling it a war crime.
This prompted Brennan to ask Senator Shaheen if she considers the "three month blockade, by Israel, of Gaza" is a war crime, to which the senator said:
"I think it is a shameful black mark on humanity that the world has allowed this to happen and that Israel is allowing this to happen. One of the- we had a very good meeting today with King Abdullah of Jordan, and one of the places that we visited is the Jordan humanitarian assistance program that is trying to get aid into Gaza. This is an- it funded trucks and warehouses and food that the United States has contributed to as part of this administration. They are trying to get in 150 trucks a day into Israel. And Israel has prevented those trucks from going in in a way that would provide the nutrition that Gazans need to prevent starvation. It is unacceptable."
Shaheen added that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has to "change his position" and allow aid to reach Gaza.
"We have people dying because they are systematically being starved to death, because Israel is refusing to allow in the humanitarian aid that people need to keep alive. Not only that, they're getting ready to do another- or, they've already started, planning another major incursion into Gaza in ways that are going to kill more people. So this is not acceptable. The world needs to speak out. I think it's very important that we allow that humanitarian aid in, to the people who are starving."
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)
To watch more of Brennan's interview with Shaheen, click here.
