Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued a lengthy statement on X on Sunday, July 26, 2026, declaring that the United States is “complicit” in the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and renewing his call for Congress to cut off all U.S. military aid to Israel. The post, titled “GAZA: THE SUFFERING CONTINUES,” laid out a series of statistics on housing, water, sanitation, energy and child hunger in the territory, and accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of moving to make its military occupation of Gaza permanent.
The Full Post
Sanders published the statement in full on his official X account at 5:59 p.m. on July 26. It read, in full:
“GAZA: THE SUFFERING CONTINUES
Today in Gaza, most of the TV cameras are gone and media interest has declined. But, more than nine months after the announcement of a supposed “ceasefire”, the suffering of the Palestinian people continues.
Today, 92% of housing units in Gaza are damaged or destroyed, 70% of the entire population lacks adequate housing and is forced to live in makeshift shelters, 86% of agricultural water wells have been damaged, the vast majority of households report significant challenges in accessing safe and clean sanitation facilities and 90% of all energy infrastructure has been destroyed.
And what about the children? Today in Gaza, 91% of school-aged children do not have sustained access to in-person education, 93% of school buildings will require full reconstruction or major rehabilitation to be functional again and 70% of infants and young children under two years of age are experiencing moderate to severe food insecurity.
All of this is taking place after the horrific destruction that Netanyahu’s extremist government brought to Gaza over the last three years: more than 73,000 Palestinians killed and 173,000 wounded — mostly women, children and the elderly. In addition, virtually the entire infrastructure of Gaza was destroyed.
Israel now controls an estimated 70% of Gaza, well beyond what they agreed to, and has built dozens of military outposts inside Gaza since the “ceasefire” began. In the nine months since the “ceasefire” was announced, Israel has killed at least 1,150 Palestinians, including a family of six last week.
Now, as if to remove any doubt about their intentions, senior leaders of the Netanyahu government are moving to make the occupation permanent. Recently, a number of government ministers led thousands of settlers to the Gaza border demanding new illegal Jewish settlements be built there. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stood up and said “Gaza is ours.”
The shameful fact is that the United States is complicit in everything that is happening in Gaza. We have funneled tens of billions of dollars in military aid to an Israeli government that has consistently violated international law and whose leader is a war criminal.
The good news is that the American people are catching on. More and more Americans — Democrats, Republicans and independents — are demanding that we stop all military aid to Israel and use our considerable leverage to end the suffering of the Palestinian people.
Enough is enough! Congress must listen to the American people. NO MORE U.S. MILITARY AID TO ISRAEL.”
A Territory Still in Ruins
The figures Sanders cited paint a picture of a population still living amid near-total infrastructure collapse nearly a year after the ceasefire was first announced. According to the senator’s post, 92 percent of housing units in Gaza remain damaged or destroyed, and 70 percent of the population lacks adequate shelter, forcing hundreds of thousands of people into makeshift tents and improvised structures. Water infrastructure has fared little better, with 86 percent of agricultural wells damaged and most households reporting serious difficulty accessing clean sanitation. Sanders said 90 percent of Gaza’s energy infrastructure has been destroyed, leaving much of the territory without reliable power.
Children, Sanders said, have borne a disproportionate share of the crisis. Ninety-one percent of school-aged children lack sustained access to in-person education, and 93 percent of school buildings require full reconstruction or major rehabilitation before they can be used again. Among the youngest Gazans, 70 percent of infants and children under two are experiencing moderate to severe food insecurity, according to the figures in the post.
Nine Months Into a Fragile “Ceasefire”
The ceasefire arrangement Sanders referenced took effect in October 2025, a deal that was intended to halt Israeli military operations, secure the release of hostages held by Hamas, and open the door to reconstruction and a surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Nearly ten months later, Sanders said the reality on the ground has fallen far short of that promise. His post states that Israel has killed at least 1,150 Palestinians since the ceasefire was announced, including a family of six killed in the past week, and that Israeli forces now control an estimated 70 percent of Gaza — well beyond the roughly 53 percent of the territory Israel was reportedly permitted to occupy temporarily under the ceasefire’s terms, according to reporting on the arrangement. Sanders said Israel has built dozens of military outposts inside Gaza since the ceasefire took hold.
“Gaza Is Ours”: Netanyahu Government Ministers Push Permanent Settlement
Sanders’ post pointed directly to a demonstration held on July 19 near Kibbutz Zikim, on Israel’s border with Gaza, where National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich led thousands of settlers and activists in a march organized by the hardline Nachala settler movement. The demonstrators demanded the reestablishment of three settlements in northern Gaza — Nisanit, Dugit and Elei Sinai — that were dismantled when Israel withdrew its settlers from the territory in 2005. Ben-Gvir posted video from the march with the caption “Gaza is ours,” and told the crowd, “There will be Jewish settlement in all of Gaza”. Smotrich, who also oversees settlement affairs in the Israeli government, urged Israelis not to let a “historic opportunity” to rebuild in Gaza pass by.
The Israeli military declared the area a closed military zone in an attempt to keep the demonstration from reaching the border fence itself, forcing organizers to alter their route, CNN reported. An Israeli military briefing shortly before the march put the share of Gaza under Israeli control at roughly 65 percent; Ben-Gvir claimed during the demonstration that the figure had already reached 70 percent. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has reported that at least 1,123 Palestinians were killed and 3,616 injured in the period between the ceasefire’s announcement and mid-July 2026, describing conditions on the ground as dire amid continued military activity, displacement and restrictions on movement, per the same report.
Sanders’ Long Campaign Against U.S. Arms Sales to Israel
Sunday’s post is the latest entry in a sustained campaign Sanders has waged from the Senate floor to cut off American military support for Israel’s war effort. In July 2025, Sanders forced votes on two Joint Resolutions of Disapproval seeking to block roughly $675 million in bomb sales and a separate sale of tens of thousands of automatic rifles to Israel, arguing in floor remarks that “the time is long overdue for Congress to use the leverage we have — tens of billions in arms and military aid — to demand that Israel end these atrocities”. Both measures failed, but by March 2026 a similar pair of resolutions saw a majority of Senate Democrats vote in favor of blocking the sales — a shift Sanders called proof that “the tide is turning,” telling reporters “the American people do not want to spend billions to starve children in Gaza.”
In an April 2026 op-ed published on his Senate website titled “No more US military aid to Israel,” Sanders laid out a similar indictment of the war’s toll, writing that Israeli forces “did not have the right to damage or destroy 94% of the hospitals in Gaza and kill 1,700 healthcare workers” and “did not have the right to impose a blockade” that led to widespread malnutrition and starvation deaths. In that same piece, Sanders extended his criticism beyond Gaza to the West Bank, writing that Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians there since October 2023 and that Netanyahu’s security cabinet had approved sweeping changes to the West Bank’s legal status aimed at expanding settlements.
Sanders has also directly accused Netanyahu of dishonesty about conditions in Gaza. During a televised appearance in the summer of 2025, Sanders called Netanyahu a “disgusting liar” for denying the scale of the territory’s food crisis, telling interviewer Kaitlan Collins that Israel had “virtually completely destroyed the entire infrastructure of Gaza” and that “there is now mass malnutrition, and children are starving to death”. In that same period, Sanders became one of the most prominent members of Congress to describe Israel’s campaign in Gaza as a “genocide,” a characterization he has repeated in subsequent statements.
Sanders Ties the Statement to Ongoing Diplomatic Pressure
Sanders has previously framed the push to cut off arms as part of a broader international shift against Israel’s conduct of the war. Speaking on the Senate floor in July 2025, he noted that France, Canada and the United Kingdom had all moved toward recognizing a Palestinian state, and that 149 countries had voted at the United Nations for a ceasefire resolution condemning the use of starvation as a weapon of war. He cited polling at the time showing only 32 percent of Americans supported Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, with just 8 percent of Democrats in favor.
Most recently, at an event in Minnesota in July 2026, Sanders said Israel “did not have the right to commit genocide” in Gaza and argued that Netanyahu’s government “should not get one nickel more from US taxpayers”. He reiterated the death toll figures included in Sunday’s post — more than 73,000 Palestinians killed and 173,000 wounded — and again described the destruction of Gaza’s hospitals, schools, water systems and electric grid.
What Happens Next
Sanders’ Sunday post does not announce new legislation, but it arrives against the backdrop of his ongoing effort to force additional Senate votes on arms sales to Israel and his repeated public appeals to link continued U.S. military assistance to Israel’s conduct in Gaza and the West Bank. With settler leaders and senior Israeli government ministers now publicly pressing for permanent Jewish settlement of Gaza — and with Israeli elections looming, a dynamic several ministers have tied explicitly to preserving what they call the “settlement revolution” of the current government — Sanders’ statement signals that the fight over U.S. military aid to Israel is likely to remain a central point of contention in Congress in the months ahead.