US Senator announces vote next week to block arms sales to Israel

US Senator Bernie Sanders said Wednesday that voting will take place next week on resolutions to block billions of dollars worth of arms sales to Israel.

"Next week, I will bring to the floor of the Senate a number of Joint Resolutions of Disapproval in order to block certain offensive weapons sales to Israel," Sanders said in a statement.

He said there is no doubt that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government is "in clear violation" of US and international law as it wages a "barbaric war" against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

"The war in Gaza has been conducted almost entirely with American weapons and $18 billion in US taxpayer dollars," he added.

The US cannot continue to be "complicit" in this war by supplying more military aid and weaponry to the Netanyahu government, he said, stressing that "Congress must act to block these arms sales."

Israel has continued its devastating offensive on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. The onslaught has killed more than 43,700 people and rendered the enclave almost uninhabitable.

Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its deadly war on Gaza.