Only israel citizens should have a say in who runs their government. This is the ry of democracy and sovereignty. Either we respect their decisions or disrespect their democracy. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Lindsey Graham majority leader Chuck Schumers remarks. This is just under 50 minutes. Adam president , during his state of the Union Address last week, President Biden once again rightly pointed out israel has the right and i would say the duty to defend itself in the aftermath of the brutal hamas terror attack october 7 that left approximate 1200 brutally there must be no more october 7ths. President biden also described the ongoing humanitarian disaster taking place in gaza today. Over 31,000 palestinians have been killed. Over 2 3 of them women and children. Likely thousands more unaccounted for buried beneath the rubble. S become a hell holef human suffering. Humanitarian that operated for decades say theyve never witnessed a more terrible situation. Madam president , among those suffering only two million innocent Palestinian Civilians but also over 130 including americans. By ericans. Earlier this week i met with some of the families of israeli hostages whose loved ones were kidnapped and areti as well as one brave woman who was held hostage and released during the november pause. That separated from their loved ones, not knowing what will happen to them next, is a day of im mental anguish and torment. Thats why we must prioritize the release of the hostages and end the suffering of Palestinian Civilians. And the only way for do that is to secure an immediate re and release all of the remaining hostages. That must happen. But until it happens, we must do power to protect innocent civilians and end the humanitarian disaster in gaza. Da of the hung rest people on hungriest people on a on the verge of starvation and over 23 children have crossed that grizzly threshold and have died of starva. Cindy mccain, the director of the World Food Programme has■■e their limbs amp indicated withoutage these ya the spread of various preventable diseases, like die radio ya among children. Mr. President , twoworld got a g horrible scene. Over 100 starving palestinians were killed as they reached for food from trucks. In the aftermath of that horrible event, President Biden has ordered airdrops of food supplies. Decision because when people are starving, every parcel of food counts. But airdrops are j the ocean of need. So i was also glad to see the president order the building of a temporary port to aid by ship. But that port will likely not be ready for at least 60 days and sufficient to meet the humanitarian need. All of these extraordinary efforts to deliverid air, by sea are being undertaken when we know that during the prewar period when there was already a0 trucks still crossed daily through the crossing in gaza. Those 500 trucks crossed every day when the need was far less acute than it is right now. He o why in the world should we have to resort to these extraordinary and more expensive means to deliver insufficient food and aid by air and sea standpoint start answer is because this is a man made disaster. The starvation in gaza is not the result of food scarcity caused by or other natural disasters that we see in many parts of the world. This has been caused primarily t has used a series of tactics to restrict the amount of aid entering into gaza. Anyone with eyes to see or ears to hear knows that. Members of the netanyahu government have made no secret of intentions. In october after the war began, it was said so long as hamas does not rea hostages the only thing that should enter gaza is hundreds of tons of air explosives, not one ounce humanitarian aid. He uses power of his finance minister to block the shipment of flour that can readn2 1. 1 Million People for a month in gaza. The shipment was finally released two days ago after having been blocked for five weeks at least and at one point Prime Minister netanyahu said his government was allowing just the, needed, was at a time when he and others denied there was even a humanitarian disaster in gaza, y of food in gaza, denied that there was hunger in gaza. Mr. President , this is why President Biden has called out these restrictions and he said in his state of the io ad humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip, unquote. The president said that hison i quote, insist that israel facilitate more trucks and more routes to get more a the hel need, no excuses, unquote. Her than five weeks ago, 25 senators sent a letter to President Biden calling to the netanyahu government to implement five specific actions to significantly increase the amount of humanitarian aid entering gaza. Have been fully implemented. That is why many of us have called on President Biden to the humanitarian awed quarterses act and now that nsm,8 security memorandum 20 is in place which is based on an amendment that 19 of us proposed to the National Security act, it sential, essential that the Biden Administration enforce its terms to get humanitarian aid delivered where it needs when people are starving, patience is not a virtue. It needs to be said, mr. President , that getting humanitarian aid into gaza is only half the battle. The other half and the more dangerous half is distributing aid once it is inside gaza. It doesnt do any good if you t to the people who are starving. In other words, you need a safe Distribution System for aid inside gaza. Now, the organization that is thery distributor of assistance within gaza has been an entity called the United Nations relief worksn by its sh. Americans may have not heard much about unrwa, so i want to say a little bit about why unrwa exists and what it does. In gaza and elsewhere. But before i do that, i want to jump to why this is a pressing issue right now. The future of unrwa is an urgent matter right now because Prime Minister netanyahu and his extreme rightwing allies want to get rid of it, not just in gaza but everywhere that it operates and guess what . Prime minister netanyahu and folks on the far right in his government have wanted to abolish unrwa not just since october 7 but since 2017. Being in in fact, in 2018, Prime Minister netanyahulq actually changed official israeli policy with respect to unrwa saying that they wanted to cut off all funding toa, even at a time that his Security Team warned that it could create instabilities throughout the region if that haened and now, mr. President , we have members republican members of the house and the senat who a jumping on this bandwagon and saying they want to abolish unrwa. And how do they want to do this . Byerting a provision in the state foreign operations and related programs appropriations bill, which is being considered and now as we gather here, to cut off all u. S. Funding for unrwa. Thats what to do. So, mr. President , lets go back to why unrwa was created in the first place. In 1949, a year after the establishment of the state ofel new agency to provide Vital Services for over 700,000 displ. Back then the idea was that unrwa would provide services to Palestinian Refugees until just and durable solution to their plight was found. As we know all too well, over h resolution to that conflict, which is why unrwas mission among other services unrwa provides schools and primary Health Services to palestian refugees and their descendants in jordan, lebanon, syria, the west bank and in gaza. Mr we all agree that the Palestinian People deserve to live in dignity, and the way to do that is to ensure that they also have selfdetermination in a homeland of their own, just like every israeli deserves i. G. Dignity and selfdetermination in the state of israel. Prime minister and i and many ion to believe that the only this conflict is a twostate solution. And President Biden has put that idea forward to create sunlight at the end of this very dark tunnel. Unrwa was really intended to be a bridge until such a resolution was reached. Now, Prime Minister netanyahu has stated very clearly that hes opposed to a twostate solution. He was opposed to accords, and he has been a severe opponent of the twostate solution. Wants to eliminate unrwa, which today is an organization of over 300,000loyees providing services to palestinians in three countries and, as i said, also in the west bank and gaza. 13,000 of those 30,000 unrwa staff operate in gaza, many of them as since the war started with the brutal maam attacks on hamas attacks, schedules have shut down and as a United Nations agency it has deployed its suppn relief to the civilian population there. It is the main vehicle for distributing humanitarian assistance in gaza. It wont do any good to get humanitarian assistance into gaza if you dismantle t u. N. Organization principally responsible for delivering that aid to people in gaza. This morning ihef jose andres, and i applaud him for his efforts and the efforts of the world central k■ itchncl israel and in gaza. He said, and i quote, support for unrwa vital. If you want to feed people, you need to support unrwa. We may have temporary port, but when the ship gets to the port, someone has to transfer that food from the ship to the people who need it in gaza. And unrwa is the principal districter of assistance to programme and others, and they say they cannot replace that capacity that unrwa has. Now, plop, in late january, the netanyahu government alleged that up to 14 o 13,000 employees participated in the horrific october attacks against israel. These are, of course, very serious allegations, and unrwa has taken them seriously. All agree that any individuals involved in that horror must be government able, and even has not provided unrwa with the underlying evidence, unrwa immediately fired the alleged perpetrators. The u. N. Secretarygeneral also took swift action and announced the launch of a full and independent■ investigation, le by the u. N. s highest investigative body, into the allegations. And that is ongoing. At the same time, President Biden suspended all u. S. Contributions to unrwa, pending the■ outcome of that investigation. A number of other countries followed suit, as did the e. U. But, mr. President , since then two things have changed. First, the netanyahu goveren un evidence with unrwa, nor, as reported by the wall street journal, has it shared the raw. In fact, i urge every one of my Senate Colleagues to read the classified report prepared by the dni, and i especially urge my colleagues to read the intelligence4. The many other claims the netanyahu government has made against unrwa. And there have been many. That completion are unaware of the fact that unrwa has long provided both israel a the named identities of all its employees for full review and. Now, israel of course has far more extensive intelligence capabilities than unrwa, but apparently they have never previously raised complaints about any of the unrwa employees on the lists given to them. ■e second, mr. President , the e. U. And many countries that initially suspended their Financial Support for since restored their contributions because they have acknowledged the didesperation gaza irreplaceable nature of unrwa. In fact, even prior to these allegations, unrwaoo secretary convene an independent review group to assess whether unrwa is doing everything in its power to so again, unrwa in gaza is an organization with a staff of 13,000 p■eople. S essential lifesustaining food and aid to over two Million People. What the e. U. And■7 these other countries recognize is that it is inhumane to cut off assistance to 2 because of the atrocious alleged acts of 14. Punish the 14. Dontunish innocent gazans. And that is why i believe that President Biden should restore this■ija assistance now. Now, mr. President , the notion that unrwa is somehow a front group hamas is a total lie, pure and simple. The indidual President Biden to be the u. S. Humanitarian coordinator in the region is a veteran diplomat, ambassador david he has repeatedly debunked claims made by members of the netanyahu government that humanitarian aid provided by unrwa has been diverted to hamas. Specifically had he said the following, and i quote i have not allegations, evidence, or records of any incidence of hamas diversion or theft of u. S. Or other assistance or fuel from u. N. Delivered assistance from any of other partners or from the government of israel since the hctober 21. Not a from Israeli Government officials or anybody else about hamas diverting aid that was being transported by unrwa or other u. N. Agencies. My colleagues, you should all know that the on the ground in gaza today is an ameran anderson. He is a 21year army veteran from south dakota. He is a no urge every senator t him. The notion that Scott Anderson is part of a Front Organization for hamas ise6■y patently absur. The truth is that before the war stard, p minte netanyahu did not pretend that he wanted to dismantle unrwa on the grounds that it was a proxy for hama long wanted to elimina unrwa everywhere else that it schoolchildren, like in the west bank and jordan. As i said, hes been trying to to do that since at least the ar2017. And now he has republicans in congress joining him and calling for the defunding o aort for un unrwa not only in gaza but throughout the region. Atmpts to■wdiscredit unrwa and the u. N. Have gotten so bad that 18 heads of all major u. N. Humanitarian and■ r agencies together with ngos like save the children and care signed a statement calling for, quote, a halt to the campaigns that seek to discredit the nongovernmental organizations doing their best to save lives, unquote. It is making it harder for them to savepresident , if you want t take a combustible situation in the west bank and make it even worse, then close down schools for kids there. Take away any chance of education. Snuff out any hopes they may have for a brighter future. Really . If you want to create jordan, sn unrwa schools and services there. Why do we allhit King Abdullah warned us about the consequences of shutting down unrwa . And heres the crazy thing about this moment pri■9 minisr tanyu seized on the lies about unrwa being a proxy for hamas in gaza to achieve his longterm goaf unrwa everywhere. And what adds insult to injury, mr. Prest,that unrwa has not perpetuated hamas in gaza. Prime minister netanyahu has done exactly that. Let me explain. You know, theres a lot of talk about the maligned actions, actors who have supported hamas over the years. One of thema maligned actor iran. Iran did not create hamas, nor does iran exerce command and control over hamas. But it does support hamas because, like iran, hamas despi eliminating israel. Thats why iran has supported hamas. But what we rarely, if ever, discuss is the Inconvenient Truth that until thee unexpecte horror of the hamas attack on october 7, Prime Minister netanyahu himself saw it intere control in gaza. Dont take my word for it. He told us in his own words back in 2019 at a Party Meeting where he said, quote, anyone who wants to prevent the creation of a palestinian state needs stren. This is part of our strategy to divide the palestinians between those in gaza and t judea and samaria, unquote. Prime minister netanyahu. Anyone who wants to prevent the palestinian state needs to support strengthening hamas. Mr. President , id like to enter into the record a piece that appeared inharatz in october of last year entitled a brief history of the Netanyahu Hamas be entered in the record. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Van hollen after all, so long as hamas was control in gaza, how could anyone ask israel to accept a palestinian state that included gaza and the west bank . Its question. So what are some of the ways in which Prime Minister netanyahu has enabled hamas its control in gaza . Well, another thing weve heard a lot about around here is the money fromg8 qatar that went to hamas. It is well established that every pennylowed from qatar to hamas with the concurrence of Prime Minister netanyahu and israel. That has b Senate ForeignRelations Committee and the banking, housing, and urban affairs committee. It has also been well numerous. Mr. President , id like to enter into the record a cnn article entitled, quote, qatar sends millions to gaza for years i ask unanimous consent that be entered into the record. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Van hollen and, mr. President , id also like to enter into the record a New York Times article from december of last year entitled, and i quote, buying quiet inside the that prop up hamas. Netanyahu gambled on a strong hamas, in parenthesis, but not too strong, would increase the pressure for a palestinian state. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Van hollen Prime Minister netanyahus role in keeping hamas in gaza did not end there enter into the record a New York Times piece from december of last found the hamas money machine years a