Demonstrators rejecting Israel’s aggression against the Gaza Strip interrupted US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s testimony at a hearing of the US Senate Armed Services Committee, raising their palms covered in red paint symbolizing the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip.
During the demonstration against Washington’s policy, Austin said that “we have no evidence that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza”, immediately rejecting demonstrators’ chants of “save the children in Gaza” and “ceasefire”, saying that on “October 7th was terrible.”
Austin’s remarks came after Senator Elizabeth Warren confirmed that “international authorities could legally consider Israel’s attack on Gaza to be genocide.”
Warren added that: “There is ample evidence that genocide is being committed in Gaza” and that “what Israel is doing is wrong,” adding that “it is starving children and civilians and dropping bombs on densely populated areas.”
The demonstrators demanded that the US “stop funding Israel and supporting its genocidal crimes.” They also said that instead of financially supporting Israel, the US should allocate resources to health and combating climate change.
In response to what they described as provocative statements by the US Secretary of War, demonstrators blocked the Senate cafeteria in Washington and chanted “The Senate can’t eat without Gaza”.
It is noteworthy that the Capitol Police arrested all the demonstrators.
