By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders said on Wednesday he would file legislation seeking to block the sale of offensive U.S. weapons to Israel, citing the toll on civilians of Israel's campaign against Hamas.
Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said he intended to file Joint Resolutions of Disapproval next week.
The U.S. Arms Export Control Act gives Congress the right to stop a major foreign weapons sale by passing a resolution of disapproval. Although no such resolution has both passed Congress and survived a presidential veto, the law requires the Senate to vote if a resolution is filed and they have at times led to angry debates embarrassing to past presidents.
"Providing more offensive weapons to continue this disastrous war would violate U.S. and international law," Sanders said in a statement.
President Joe Biden has faced calls from his fellow Democrats throughout Israel's campaign in Gaza to press Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to ease the devastating humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave.
In his announcement, Sanders noted that the Biden administration last month approved arms sales to Israel totaling more than $20 billion that included systems tied to tens of thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza. He said exporting such weapons would violate human rights provisions in the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and Arms Export Control Act.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sanders' announcement.
The war in the Gaza Strip began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas gunmen stormed into Israeli communities, killing some 1,200 people and abducting about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, Israel's military has leveled swaths of Gaza, driving nearly all of its 2.3 million people from their homes, giving rise to deadly hunger and disease and killing more than 41,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.
The U.S., Israel's biggest ally and weapons supplier, has sent Israel more than 10,000 highly destructive 2,000-pound (900-kg) bombs and thousands of Hellfire missiles since the start of the Gaza war in October, U.S. officials told Reuters in June.