Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said Friday that the “current approach is not working” in Gaza, and he called to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into the besieged strip and provide only defensive weapons to Israel going forward.
Kaine said he remains “deeply distressed” by the more than 33,000 Palestinians who have been killed as Israel fights against the militant group Hamas, along with the tens of thousands of displaced Israeli citizens in northern Israel and the roughly 100 Israeli hostages still believed to be held alive in Gaza.
The senator, who sits on both the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, stressed that “more needs to be done to protect innocent life” and get aid into Gaza, where the United Nations has warned of a potential famine in the north.
“The amount of aid allowed by Israel to enter Gaza has been painfully slow and dramatically inadequate,” Kaine said in a statement.
While he acknowledged Israel has opened a new border crossing for aid delivery, he said that “should have happened months ago” and the move “follows a similar pattern of lengthy delay” from Israel.
The comments from Kaine, a key ally of President Biden, represent a growing a shift toward a more critical tone among Democrats as there is mounting concern in the party about the war in Gaza, which began in October following a deadly Hamas attack in Israel that killed more than 1,100 people, with another roughly 250 kidnapped.
Those Democratic concerns rose this week after the Israeli military killed seven aid workers with the charity aid group World Central Kitchen (WCK) in a strike Israel said was a mistake.
In the wake of the WCK attack, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said she would move to block the potential sale of F-15s to Israel. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) also signaled an openness to conditioning military aid to Israel this week, while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has for months called to condition aid.
Kaine said Friday he supports calls to ensure U.S. security assistance cooperates with humanitarian relief efforts, but added the “current approach is not working” with Israel and that the Biden administration must “use every tool at its disposal to ensure that sufficient aid reaches Gaza.”
“My daily involvement in this matter since October convinces me that Israel is falling far short of this requirement,” he said of ensuring humanitarian aid is getting into Gaza.
Kaine also repeated his call to only provide defensive weapons in all arms sales to Israel, “while withholding bombs and other offensive weapons that can kill and wound civilians and humanitarian aid workers.”
“Israel must have the capacity to defend itself against those—like Hamas—who would annihilate it,” he said. “But more offensive weapons delivered at this moment will only further widen suffering in Israel, Gaza and the region.”
Biden has also pushed Israel to minimize civilian deaths and get more aid into Gaza. The president this week had a tense phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the WCK strike, which sparked some of Biden’s harshest comments yet.
Israel said it would open the new border crossing in northern Gaza just hours after the phone call. The Israeli military on Friday also punished two officers responsible for the WCK strike after a preliminary investigation found the attack should not have happened. The military mistakenly assumed the WCK staff were Hamas fighters, according to the preliminary investigation.
WCK and some other aid groups suspended operations in Gaza after the strike. More than 200 aid workers have died in Gaza since the war began.
Kaine said there should be an independent investigation into the WCK strike, but the White House on Friday said it was not backing those calls for an outside review at the moment.
The U.S. has been trying to get more aid to Palestinians through airdrops and through an effort to build a pier off the coast of Gaza, which is expected to come online by early May.
On Friday, Kaine said the WCK strike “raises questions about whether the U.S. can safely partner with these groups to deliver aid from a marine pier into Gaza.”
“U.S. troops involved in such a mission will likely include Virginians,” he said. “They shouldn’t be in harm’s way as they provide life-sustaining aid, but the unfolding events in the region show that even a humanitarian aid mission carries real danger.”