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According to the report by Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, the destruction in Gaza is beyond bombs and bullets
During the visit to the Egyptian-Gaza border, Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley observed Rafah, the southern Gaza city – once home to 270,000 Palestinians – reduced to rubble
Amid the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict, two Democratic senators who recently returned from a congressional delegation to the Middle East, said that the Netanyahu government is “imposing collective punishment on all the people of Gaza”.
According to a report published by Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, both members of the Senate foreign relations committee, the destruction in Gaza is beyond bombs and bullets. The report is titled “The Netanyahu Government Is Implementing a Plan to Ethnically Cleanse Gaza of Palestinians. America is Complicit. The World Must Stop It.”
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“In Gaza, the Netanyahu government is implementing its goal through the near-total destruction of civilian infrastructure and its use of food as a weapon of war. These policies are part of a calculated effort to drive Palestinians out of Gaza by making it impossible for them to live there. Any talk of ‘voluntary departures’ is a cruel hoax. Departure is not ‘voluntary’ when the conditions needed to support life are extinguished,” the report stated.
“The Netanyahu government has gone far beyond targeting Hamas to imposing collective punishment on all the people of Gaza,” Van Hollen said at a Thursday press conference. “What they’re doing, and what we witnessed, is putting those goals into action.”
During the visit to the Egyptian-Gaza border, Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley observed Rafah, the southern Gaza city – once home to 270,000 Palestinians – reduced to rubble, The Guardian reported.
In the report, the senators quoted Jordanian officials as saying that peanut butter, honey and dates have been suddenly banned from convoys, with entire trucks turned away for carrying a single restricted item.
Similarly in Egypt, the fleet of UN trucks have “sustained severe damage”, with United Nations organizations showing the senators video of their convoys coming under fire from the IDF, “a regular occurrence,” The Guardian reported.
After visiting the areas, the senators concluded that the “Netanyahu government has used a two-pronged approach to pursue its current strategy to displace Palestinians from Gaza — the systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure and the use of food and humanitarian assistance as a weapon of war. The goal is, in effect, to ethnically cleanse Gaza of its Palestinian population”.
On September 7, Under-Secretary-General Fletcher demanded urgent action to halt the spread of famine and suffering in Gaza.
He warned that there is a narrow window – until the end of September – to prevent famine from expanding to Deir al Balah and Khan Younis, adding that this window is closing fast.
The UN quoted the health ministry as stating that by September 8, the total number of deaths reported in Gaza since end of the ceasefire in mid-March was almost 12,000.
United States of America (USA)
September 12, 2025, 10:06 IST
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