Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Israel should take Gaza, as he does not see a safe path for Israel to end its war with Hamas.
He compared Israel’s course of action to that of the United States at the end of World War II.
“I think President Trump has come to believe, and I certainly have come to believe, there’s no way you’re going to negotiate an end of this war with Hamas,” Graham said on NBC News’ Meet the Press.
“They’re going to do in Gaza what we did in Tokyo and Berlin, take the place by force and start over again, presenting a better future for the Palestinians, hopefully having the Arabs take over the West Bank and Gaza,” he added.
Graham said he believed Israel has found “that they can’t achieve a goal of ending the war with Hamas that would be satisfactory to the safety of Israel.”
“There is no future for the Palestinian people as long as Hamas is around,” Graham said.
Calls to allow more aid into Gaza have increased this week, after two more reports of shootings by aid sites. Israel announced it would resume aid air drops Friday, which had been paused for months. Air drops are seen as a last resort given the danger they pose to those on the ground.
The Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas, has claimed that over 100 people have died from starvation recently. The IDF has disputed those reports, but it does not allow independent agencies into Gaza to confirm the number of fatalities.
Israel announced a pause in fighting Sunday to allow aid to be delivered.
ISRAEL’S GAZA AID EFFORT HAS TURNED INTO A DEADLY SCRAMBLE FOR FOOD
“Tomorrow morning Israel will apply a ‘humanitarian pause’ in civilian centers and in humanitarian corridors to enable the distribution of aid supply. Israel has continued to facilitate the entry of aid trucks into the Gaza strip,” the IDF statement said.
They added that the United Nations would be allowed to distribute “large quantities of aid.”