Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) slammed the Trump administration over its peace deal in Gaza, alleging that the damage far outweighs the progress made in recent weeks.
The Vermont senator said President Trump has “continued the policies” begun under the Biden administration that led to 160,000 wounded Palestinians and 65,000 deaths of “mostly women, children, and the elderly.”
“That is 10 percent of the population of Gaza has been killed and wounded. And up until a few days ago, people were literally starving to death because of Israeli blockades of humanitarian aid,” Sanders said during an appearance on the “Modern Wisdom” podcast.
“No one in this country deserves a Nobel Peace Prize who has been part of that, and Trump has been part of it,” he added.
The full interview is set to air Thursday and include more of Sanders’s grievances against U.S. actions through the more than two year war between Israel and Hamas.
“It does bother me this [is] getting credit. Here is the reality. Under Biden, under Trump, American taxpayers have spent over $20 billion in providing military aid to Netanyahu and his extremists,” Sanders told host Chris Williamson.
The first phase of Trump's peace plan was accepted by the two entities and implemented earlier this month, resulting in Hamas’s release of both living and dead hostages in exchange for the freedom of 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also retreated to a certain line in hopes of ending conflict in the region. Still, Sanders has raised concerns about the money spent on the war after accusing Israel of genocide in late September.
“What we do need to do is to reexamine foreign policy and make sure that taxpayers in this country are never put in that position of having to support such an atrocious regime as Netanyahu's and what he's doing in Israel,” the Vermont senator said.
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested the president deserved a Nobel Peace Prize for the intervention. For 2025, the prestigious award was given to María Corina Machado of Venezuela.
In the days following the announcement, Hamas has continued to shoot at innocent people and has threatened to jeopardize steps toward stability in the region.
Last week, the president said, “If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the Deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” in a post on Truth Social.
Source: The Hill - News
