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leahy law
Worse Than Fiction: Responding to a Mass Casualty Event in Gaza
On the television show The Pitt, the fictional “never-ending” mass casualty scene featured 112 patients. We saw nearly four times that number in a single afternoon.
Aug 07, 2025
On Tuesday, June 17, the staff at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza, experienced a mass casualty event that began at around 9:00 am in the morning and didn’t stop until nearly 6 in the afternoon. It wasn’t one incident. It was a continuous flood of broken, bleeding, dying human beings.
By the end of the day, we had seen over 400 patients. Around 250 were critically injured. Ninety died in the resuscitation room, many on the floor.
I’m a doctor and I was in Gaza as a volunteer with an organization called Rahma Worldwide. Before Gaza, I had never worked a true mass casualty. The only ones I’d ever experienced were at Nasser itself in the days leading up to this one, trauma surges that already felt unbearable. But this was different. This was so much more. This wasn’t a surge. This was a human tide.
To put it into perspective, on the television show The Pitt, the fictional “never-ending” mass casualty scene featured 112 patients. We saw nearly four times that number in a single afternoon. And every one of them was real. Every injury was real. Every death was real.
It wasn’t an unfortunate consequence of war. It was the logical outcome of a system that has decided some lives are worth less than others.
Moreover, these weren’t random wartime injuries. This was the result of deliberate, targeted violence. People were shot while waiting for food at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution points. Tanks opened fire on crowds. Families just trying to survive were torn apart by weapons never meant for civilians. Some of the bodies came to us in pieces. Many had no names.
Inside Nasser’s emergency department, the conditions were beyond description. Patients were laid on top of each other, not because of neglect or lack of care, but because there was simply no space left. The floor became our only option. Blood from multiple patients pooled across the tile, thick and dark, mixing with dust and sand and bits of shrapnel. I remember crouching over one patient while reaching to clamp another’s bleeding artery. There was nowhere to move without stepping in blood.
At one point, I swung around quickly trying not to slip, and my elbow struck one of the nurses directly in the face. She took two steps back, lifted her head, and just smiled at me and moved on. That was the kind of day it was. That’s the kind of people I worked with.
The injuries were horrific. Gunshots to the chest, neck, and face. Limbs blasted off. Pregnant women with abdominal wounds and no fetal heart tones. Toddlers with missing eyes, fractured skulls, or no pulse at all. We intubated and transfused nonstop. Massive transfusion protocols ran dry. Every resource was pushed past its limit.
And still, the staff kept working.
Local emergency physicians, residents, and medical students. International volunteers like me, working through organizations like Rahma Worldwide and Glia. And above all, the nurses. These nurses, many unpaid and all overworked, showed up anyway. They stood in the blood and fire and brought order to hell. They triaged, charted, held hands, cleaned wounds, comforted children, and kept going long after the rest of us were spent.
The surgical teams on the floor above us moved at a nearly impossible pace. One after another, they attended to the worst of the worst casualties and tried to save them. When the day finally slowed, many of the doctors rinsed off what they could, stepped over rubble, and walked back to their tents to sleep for a few hours. Then they came back a few hours later to do it again.
This is not medicine. This is something entirely different. It is not war in the way most people think of war. It is something colder. It is targeted, purposeful, mechanized human erasure.
What happened at Nasser Hospital that day in June was not an accident. It wasn’t an unfortunate consequence of war. It was the logical outcome of a system that has decided some lives are worth less than others. The world needs to stop pretending this is too complicated to understand.
The Pitt is fictional. Gaza is not.
Let’s stop the genocide. Let’s stop the funding to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) using the only recognized and well established U.S. law designed to do this: the Leahy Law. To sign the petition go to https://sign.moveon.org/p/LeahyReviewNow. For more background information go to www.LeahyReviewNow.org.
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Enforce the Law: Trigger the Leahy Review Now Over IDF Abuses in Gaza
No foreign military, no matter how close the alliance, should receive blank checks from the U.S. government when there is credible evidence they are violating international humanitarian norms and committing war crimes.
Jul 26, 2025
The Leahy Law is not a fringe idea. It is settled United States law, enshrined in bipartisan legislation that prohibits American tax dollars from funding foreign military units that commit gross violations of human rights. Its purpose is simple and resonates across political lines: accountability.
That is why we are launching the Leahy Review Now campaign, calling on Congress to immediately initiate a formal Leahy Law review of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) based on overwhelming evidence of systematic abuses in Gaza.
This is not a left or right issue. It is a matter of law and order, fiscal responsibility, and American integrity. No foreign military, no matter how close the alliance, should receive blank checks from the U.S. government when there is credible evidence they are violating international humanitarian norms and committing war crimes. That is exactly what the Leahy Law was written to prevent. And right now, it is being ignored.
I am not writing this as a politician or a pundit. I’m writing this as a physician who just returned from Gaza, where I served at Nasser Hospital during one of the largest mass casualty events of the war. On June 17, I crawled and knelt on the blood-covered floors of the trauma bay, surrounded by infants, children, and teenagers with gunshot wounds to the head, traumatic amputations, and shrapnel wounds carved deep into their torsos and faces. The scale and precision of the injuries made clear that these were not accidents. They were the result of deliberate military policy.
The children dying in Gaza are not abstractions. They are real. They are beautiful. And they are being erased with the help of American-made bombs and bullets.
One young girl wore a red sweater with the word “Love” across the front. Her left arm was severed off mid arm. I hesitated before cutting off her clothes because they were the only warm and beautiful thing left on her tiny frame. She was barely conscious, but she was still alive. Across from her were the bodies of five young boys, all lined up, all with single gunshots to the head. Their skulls were opened, and their brains spilled into their hair. Some had just finished hiding small bags of flour under their clothing just before they were shot.
The so-called “aid drop zones” are not safe. They are kill boxes. More than once, I treated children whose last act of hope was running toward a flour sack. Some died with food still in their hands. The IDF has repeatedly struck civilians at aid distribution points, evacuation corridors, hospitals, ambulances, schools, and United Nations shelters. None of this is speculation. These facts are backed by credible documentation from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, United Nations agencies, and most importantly, by the firsthand testimony of those of us who were there.
The Leahy Law explicitly prohibits U.S. military aid to units that commit gross violations of human rights. That includes extrajudicial killings, torture, targeting civilians, and violations of the Geneva Conventions. The conduct of the IDF in Gaza is not in a gray area. It qualifies.
Yet despite this mountain of evidence, the United States continues to send billions in weapons and military support. Congress continues to write blank checks. And most American taxpayers have no idea that they are funding the systematic destruction of a civilian population.
The Leahy Review Now campaign demands a change. We are calling on members of Congress, particularly the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee, to immediately trigger a formal review of the IDF under the Leahy Law. The process must be transparent, independent, and thorough. If the law is applied honestly, the outcome will be clear.
To be silent now is to be complicit. And to be complicit is to be culpable.
Some will say this is about geopolitics. It is not. This is about law. This is about children. This is about the fundamental principle that no one is above accountability. Not even our allies.
Former Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) himself has stated clearly that the law bearing his name must apply to Israel just as it applies to every other nation. To carve out an exception now would be to gut the law entirely. That would send a chilling message to the world: The rules-based order is optional, and America plays favorites.
We cannot let that happen. The law must mean something. The deaths must mean something. The future depends on our ability to stop this cycle of impunity.
As a physician, I took an oath to do no harm. That oath doesn’t end at our borders. It extends to all people, everywhere, especially when they are being harmed with our money and our weapons.
That’s why I am asking you to sign the petition at https://sign.moveon.org/p/LeahyReviewNow. For more information on the petition go to www.LeahyReviewNow.org. Share it. Talk about it. Pressure your elected officials. Demand a review. Demand accountability. And demand it now.
This campaign is not symbolic. It is legal. It is grounded. And it is urgent. The children dying in Gaza are not abstractions. They are real. They are beautiful. And they are being erased with the help of American-made bombs and bullets. We can no longer say we didn’t know.
We know.
Now it’s time to act.
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Why the US Must End Its Unconditional Support for Israel
This policy has tarnished America’s image as a champion of human rights and democracy, while trapping the Middle East in a cycle of violence.
May 31, 2025
Imagine a U.S. president embarking on a lavish trip to the Middle East, signing major deals with Arab leaders—while Israel, its long-time ally, isn’t even invited to the table. This hypothetical scenario, which could easily have occurred with Donald Trump’s return to power in 2025, is a warning bell for a decades-old policy that has held America’s credibility hostage: unconditional support for Israel.
This alliance has not only stripped the U.S. of its role as a credible peace broker but has also made it complicit in human rights violations and an obstacle to democracy in the region. The time has come for the U.S. to drastically curtail its massive aid to Israel and instead invest in democratic institutions and comprehensive peace across the Middle East.
Israel: A Saboteur of Peace
Every time a genuine hope for peace has emerged in the Middle East, Israel’s actions have worked to destroy it. In the 1990s, the Oslo Accords promised Palestinian autonomy, but Israel quickly doubled down on illegal settlements in the West Bank, turning hope into despair. Between 1993 and 2000, the number of settlers grew from 110,000 to over 200,000. In 2000, the Camp David negotiations collapsed due to Israel’s insistence on retaining control over parts of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
U.S. military aid to Israel—including $12.5 billion in direct support since October 2023—has become inseparable from accusations of human rights violations.
This pattern continued. In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza, but instead of enabling peace, it imposed a suffocating blockade that turned the lives of 2 million Palestinians into a nightmare. Since October 2023, Israeli attacks on Gaza—backed by U.S. arms—have killed over 60,000 people, many of them civilians. These assaults, executed with 500-pound bombs supplied by the U.S., have obliterated any prospects for diplomacy. With unwavering American support, Israel has not only undermined peace but also fueled regional instability.
America’s Credibility at Risk
U.S. support for Israel—which has included $310 billion in financial aid since 1948 and 49 vetoes of United Nations resolutions critical of Israel—has disqualified Washington from being seen as a neutral mediator. When the U.S. recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017, Palestinians withdrew from negotiations, plunging the peace process into a deadlock. This policy has strained America’s relations with Arab countries and opened doors for China and Russia to increase their influence in the region.
Public opinion in the U.S. is also shifting. According to a Gallup poll from March 2025, only 46% of Americans support Israel—the lowest in 25 years—while 33% sympathize with Palestinians. This shift, particularly among younger generations, reflects growing dissatisfaction with a policy that undermines the very values of human rights and democracy America claims to uphold.
Human Rights and Democratic Contradictions
U.S. military aid to Israel—including $12.5 billion in direct support since October 2023—has become inseparable from accusations of human rights violations. Amnesty International and other watchdogs have accused Israel of using American-supplied weapons in attacks on civilians, in violation of the Leahy Law. Yet the U.S. has ignored these concerns and continued arms transfers.
Domestically, Israel’s policies—such as expanding illegal settlements and curbing judicial independence—clash with the principles of liberal democracy. These contradictions have damaged America’s reputation as a defender of democracy and eroded public support. A Pew survey from March 2024 found that 51% of Americans held a negative view of the Israeli government.
A Path Toward Peace and Democracy
Scaling back support for Israel could free the U.S. from this political quagmire. Reducing the $3.8 billion in annual military aid would pressure Israel to commit to a two-state solution and recognize Palestinian statehood. This shift could deter destabilizing actions like military offensives and settlement expansion, and pave the way for comprehensive peace.
Rather than continuing military expenditures, the U.S. should invest in strengthening democratic institutions in the Middle East. Supporting civil society organizations in Palestine, Jordan, and Egypt—and enhancing regional diplomacy—could lay the groundwork for lasting peace. This approach would not only restore America’s credibility as a force for peace but also aid in resolving other crises, such as nuclear negotiations with Iran. The Abraham Accords proved that multilateral diplomacy can normalize relations, but this time, Palestinians must be included.
Challenges and the Urgency of Change
Reducing support for Israel won’t be easy. Lobbying groups like AIPAC and certain U.S. lawmakers will resist. But such resistance must not deter a necessary course correction. Without change, the U.S. will remain complicit in crimes that destroy prospects for peace. A gradual, coordinated shift—aligned with Arab allies and strengthened diplomacy—can prevent regional destabilization.
Ending a Dangerous Illusion
Unconditional U.S. support for Israel, which has repeatedly sabotaged peace, is no longer defensible. This policy has tarnished America’s image as a champion of human rights and democracy, while trapping the Middle East in a cycle of violence. The time has come for the U.S. to sharply reduce aid to Israel, recognize Palestine, and invest in regional peace and democracy. This is the only path to restoring America’s global standing and ending decades of instability.
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Biden Greenlights 'Racist' and 'Sociopathic' $8B Arms Sale to Israel
Multiple human rights organizations and international bodies have accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza
Jan 04, 2025
The administration of US President Joe Biden announced on Saturday an arms sale to Israel valued at $8 billion, just ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House.
Biden has repeatedly rejected calls to suspend military backing for Israel because of the number of civilians killed during the war in Gaza. Israel has killed more than 45,000 people in Gaza, primarily women and children.
The sale includes medium-range air-to-air missiles, 155mm projectile artillery shells for long-range targeting, Hellfire AGM-114 missiles, 500-pound bombs, and more.
Human rights groups, former State Department officials, and Democratic lawmakers have urged the Biden administration to halt arms sales to Israel, citing violations of US laws, including the Leahy Law, as well as international laws and human rights.
The Leahy Law, named after former Sen. Patrick Leahy, requires the US to withhold military assistance from foreign military or law enforcement units if there is credible evidence of human rights violations.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s most significant Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called Biden’s new $8 billion arms deal “racist” and “sociopathic.”
Multiple human rights organizations and international bodies have accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for committing war crimes.
The US is, by far, the biggest supplier of weapons to Israel, having helped it build one of the most technologically sophisticated militaries in the world.
CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said on Saturday:
“We strongly condemn the Biden administration for its unbelievable and criminal decision to send another $8 billion worth of American weapons to the government of indicted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu instead of using American leverage to force an end to the genocide in Gaza.
“Only racists who do not view people of color as equally human, and sociopaths who delight in funding mass slaughter, could send Netanyahu even more bombs while his government openly kidnaps doctors, destroys hospitals, and exterminates the last survivors in northern Gaza.
“If President Biden is actually the person who approved this new $8 billion arms sale, then he is a war criminal who belongs in a cell at The Hague alongside Netanyahu. But if Antony Blinken, Brett McGurk, Jake Sullivan, and other aides are making these unconscionable decisions as shadow presidents, then anyone with a conscience in the administration should speak up now about their abuses of power.”
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the US accounted for 69% of Israel's imports of major conventional arms between 2019 and 2023.
On the other hand, incoming President-elect Donald Trump has also pledged unwavering support for Israel and has never committed to supporting an independent Palestinian state.
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US Reps. Thompson, Huffman Served in Class Action Suit Over Gaza Genocide
California residents' lawsuit accuses the Democrats of violating their constitutional rights by voting to use their taxes "for the unlawful purpose of being complicit in genocide."
Jan 02, 2025
Two Democratic congressmen from Northern California were served this week with legal documents in a class action lawsuit filed by hundreds of their constituents who argue that the lawmakers illegally forced them into complicity with Israel's genocidal annihilation of Gaza.
Taxpayers Against Genocide (TAG), a group of more than 600 constituents of Reps. Mike Thompson and Jared Huffman represented by the firm Szeto-Wong Law, said it delivered a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief to the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, where it was received by Deputy General Counsel for the House of Representatives Todd Tatelman.
As Common Dreams reported, the lawsuit was filed last month in San Francisco.
TAG said in a statement Wednesday that Thompson and Huffman "illegally abused their tax and spend authority when they voted to allocate $26.38 billion in military aid to Israel on April 20, 2024," and that by doing so, they violated the U.S. Constitution, the Genocide Convention, and federal laws.
According to the lawsuit:
Mike Thompson and Jared Huffman exceeded the constitutional limitations on their tax and spend authority by voting to authorize the funding of the Israeli military when they were aware, or should have been aware, that the Israeli military was committing genocide in Gaza, which made their votes a violation of customary international and federal law that prohibits complicity in genocide. Furthermore, defendants' votes violated multiple other laws and policies, including the Leahy Law, which prohibits aid to foreign security forces that have committed a gross violation of human rights; the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and Arms Export Control Act, which prohibit assistance to any country in which the government engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights and require the advancement of U.S. foreign policy interests consistent with internationally recognized human rights; and the Conventional Arms Transfer policy, which prohibits U.S. weapons transfers that risk facilitating or otherwise contributing to violations of human rights or international law. Plaintiffs' constitutional rights to have their taxes collected for only lawful purposes have been and continue to be violated by defendants' votes to use plaintiffs' taxes for the unlawful purpose of being complicit in genocide.
"The moral injuries that I and countless other constituents of Rep. Huffman have suffered resulting from his vote to arm the genocide in Gaza are immeasurable," plaintiff Carol Bloom said on Wednesday.
Judy Talaugon—a plaintiff and an Indigenous elder and activist in Sonoma County—said: "Palestinian children are all our children, deserving of our advocacy and support. And their liberation is the catalyst for systemic change for the betterment of us all."
In an interview with CounterPunch published Wednesday, plaintiff Ellen P. said that although Huffman did hold a November 2023 meeting with members of the group Humboldt for Palestine, activists in attendance left disappointed.
"I was aghast at Huffman's response to this thoughtful and heartfelt plea from his constituents," she said. "He repeatedly interrupted speakers, admonished their use of language—even debating with us about the definition of 'genocide' and 'apartheid'—and tried to lecture us rather than listen to us."
"He made it very clear he was not at all interested in anything we had to say and that he is a committed Zionist," she added.
Huffman has not responded publicly to the lawsuit.
Thompson's office responded last month to the suit in a statement asserting that the congressman "understands that it has been the civilian population that has paid the cost of Hamas' terrorist attack on Israel and he remains gravely concerned about the scale of civilian loss in this war."
However, the statement added that "achieving peace and securing the safety of civilians won't be accomplished by filing a lawsuit."
United Nations experts, human rights groups, jurists, academics, activists, and others argue that Israel's policies and actions during its 454-day assault on Gaza fit the definition of genocide as described in Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, more commonly called the Genocide Convention.
Backed by over two dozen mostly Global South nations and regional blocs, South Africa is leading a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The U.S., which provides Israel with tens of billions of dollars in military aid and diplomatic cover including United Nations Security Council cease-fire resolution vetoes, is one of around 10 countries—most of them in the Global North—opposing the case.
The year 2025 began with more Israeli killing of Palestinians, including a New Year's Day airstrike massacre at the Jabalia refugee camp that left at least 15 people, including four children and a woman, dead, and a Thursday attack on an Israeli-designated "safe zone" in southern Gaza that reportedly killed at least 11 people, including three children.
According to Gaza officials, at least 45,581 Palestinians have been killed and more than 108,000 others wounded by Israeli attacks, with at least 11,000 people missing and believed dead and buried beneath rubble. The overwhelming majority of Gazans have been forcibly displaced, and hundreds of thousands are suffering starvation and sickness exacerbated by Israel's "complete siege" of the embattled enclave.
TAG plaintiff Norman Solomon wrote in a Thursday opinion piece for Common Dreams that he whilethat he certainly does not "expect the courts to halt the U.S. policies that have been enabling the horrors in Gaza to go on," the unprecedented lawsuit "makes a clear case for the moral revulsion that so many Americans feel about the culpability of the U.S. government."
As Maria Barakat, a Palestinian-Lebanese American plaintiff in the case said on Thursday, "This class action is only the beginning of the people's exercise of power against the violence of the American government and our refusal to be complicit."
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