Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., condemned the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) operation that freed two Hamas hostages Sunday.
The lawmaker, a member of the progressive congressional group "The Squad," argued Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration must no longer receive support.
“While we watched the Super Bowl, Netanyahu launched a wave of attacks and killed innocent civilians in Rafah – a place where many refugees fled for relative safety – despite warnings from Biden,” Rep. Bowman posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. "Netanyahu's government is unfit to lead anything and cannot receive support."
IDF raided an apartment in the southern Gaza city of Rafah Sunday while issuing airstrikes to supplement its attempt to free Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Har, 70.
“This rescue mission underscores the importance of our ground operation in Gaza, including Rafah, when conditions allow,” the military’s spokesman, Daniel Hagari, said. “We have a moral obligation to bring all our hostages home and that is an obligation that we will continue doing everything in our power to fulfill.”
At least 67 Palestinians died in the operation, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, with more than 50 at the Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital by an Associated Press journalist’s count. Hagari contends Hamas held Marman and Har captive in “harsh” conditions in an intentionally sensitive area.
“They were intentionally held in the middle of a civilian neighborhood, inside a civilian building to try to prevent us from rescuing them. But we did,” the spokesperson alleged. “Fernando Marman and Louis Har are now home in Israel.”
Netanyahu insists missions in Rafah are essential to defeating Hamas.
“Those who say that under no circumstances should we enter Rafah are basically saying, ‘Lose the war. Keep Hamas there,” he said. “And Hamas has promised to do the Oct. 7 massacre over and over and over again.”
Netanyahu accuses Hamas of inflicting civilian loss onto Israel and believes his effort to free hostages is “the right thing.”
“Put yourself in Israel’s shoes. We were attacked ... on Oct. 7 – the worst attack on Jewish people since the Holocaust,” the prime minister noted. “I think we’ve responded in a way that goes after the terrorists and tries to minimize the civilian population in which the terrorists embed themselves and use them as human shields.”
Netanyahu stated Israel has dropped thousands of fliers and called Palestinians to warn them of incoming danger, giving them safe exit pathways in the process.
President Joe Biden criticized Israel’s approach to the war on Thursday.
“I’m of the view that conduct of the response in the Gaza Strip has been over the top,” Biden remarked. “I’ve been pushing really hard to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza where a lot of innocent people are starving, where a lot of innocent people are in trouble and dying, and it’s got to stop.”
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