U.S. Sen. Angus King of Maine said Monday that he will oppose providing additional U.S. support to Israel over what he said is the country's failure to address the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza.
In a strongly worded statement, King called Israel's conduct during the war in Gaza "an affront to human decency." King said that while Israel was justified in responding to the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks by Hamas, he said "what appears to be a deliberately induced famine among a civilian population ... can never be an acceptable military strategy."
“For these reasons, I am through supporting the actions of the current Israeli government and will advocate — and vote — for an end to any United States support whatsoever until there is a demonstrable change in the direction of Israeli policy," King said. "My litmus test will be simple: no aid of any kind as long as there are starving children in Gaza due to the action or inaction of the Israeli government.”
In a subsequent interview Monday afternoon, King was asked what prompted him to issue his statement after having voted against some previous attempts to block U.S. military assistance to Israel.
"Starving children: that's the short answer," King said. "I don't believe there is any justification or excuse for a policy that has the effect of producing a famine, particularly one that is affecting tens of thousands of children. I've spoken with Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu, I've spoken with his ambassadors several times, I've signed onto letters and I've done a variety of things. I just decided that I could not remain silent. And I believe the only thing they will understand is a straightforward risk of losing American support."
King, who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee, has been openly critical of Israel's tactics in Gaza in the past. He voted last November to support resolutions from fellow independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont to restrict U.S. shipments of offensive weapons to Israel. But King also voted against resolutions in April to block weapons sales to Israel because he feared at the time undermining ceasefire negotiations.
The Maine Coalition for Palestine says they've been waiting for years for political leaders to make a decisive statement in support of Palestinians. The Coalition's Fateh Azzam says although they welcome King's announcement, "It's a bit late when the U.S. has enabled this for almost two years, and when the entire world, almost without exception, has come out very clearly to say, 'This has got to stop.'"
Azzam is among more than three dozen members of the Coalition who participated in a 40-day hunger strike this spring to draw attention to the plight of starving Palestinians in Gaza.
"It makes me feel like, 'OK, maybe this is finally taking the first steps on what may be a long road towards a real change here,'" Azzam says.
King, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, announced the shift at a time when there is growing international condemnation of Israel's war in Gaza and its restrictions on the flow of humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the region. Israel announced on Sunday that it would begin daily, 10-hour pauses in fighting to allow for the distribution of food aid and other assistance. But the United Nations has warned of mass starvation in Gaza.
President Trump also told reporters during a trip to Scotland on Monday that there is "real starvation" in Gaza, despite statements from Netanyahu dismissing any such crisis in the Israel-occupied territory. Trump also said the U.S. would do more to get more assistance to Palestinians but he did not offer specific details.
The director of emergencies at the U.N. World Food Program, Ross Smith, told reporters on Monday that nearly 100,000 women and children in Gaza are battling severe acute malnutrition. The agency has also estimated that one-third of Gaza's more than 2 million people go multiple days in a row without food. And the U.N. has said that more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in recent months while attempting to get food, often near food distribution points run by a U.S. contractor.
In his statement and interview, King said that Israel was "clearly justified" in responding to the Oct. 7th attacks that killed more than 1,200 Israelis, the vast majority of them civilians. Hamas also took more than 250 hostages that day. But King said those tragic events don't justify the "enormous toll on Palestinian civilians" since then.
"A 10-year-old child in Gaza is not a member of Hamas," King said. "But instead they (the Israeli government) have chosen to expand the victims of their attacks to include women, children and civilians. And I just felt that enough was enough."
Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree, who represents Maine's 1st Congressional District, is the only other member of Maine's delegation to call for a halt to weapons shipments to Israel over the war in Gaza. Republican Sen. Susan Collins and 2nd District Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat, have been staunch supporters of continuing U.S. assistance to Israel.
