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Ilhan Omar Warns ‘Genocide’ Could Continue in Gaza, Calls for ‘Arms Embargo’ on Israel Amid Ceasefire With Hamas
US Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) speaks at a press conference with activists calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in front of the Capitol in Washington, DC, Dec. 14, 2023. Photo: Annabelle Gordon / CNP/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
US Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) expressed skepticism that the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas will hold during a newly released interview with anti-Israel pundit Marc Lamont Hill, cautioning that the so-called “genocide” in Gaza could resume due to Israeli misconduct.
“I think the biggest danger for Palestinians is to have this genocide continue, and so if we have a window for that to end, I think the Palestinians are resilient enough to withstand a lot of things,” Omar said on Hill’s podcast, “Office Hours.”
The congresswoman added she was “surprised” that the Biden administration did not initially pressure Israel to implement a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza, claiming that the United States “subsidizes” the Jewish state. Moreover, she expressed astonishment at reports that Trump administration officials pushed their Israeli counterparts into brokering a ceasefire with Hamas. However, Omar claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might undermine the ceasefire in Gaza, causing the war to resume.
Last week, Israel and Hamas agreed to a three-phase deal that halts fighting in Gaza, and if fully implemented, would stop the war entirely. Under the first phase, Hamas is set to release 33 hostages — women, children, and elderly men — over the next six weeks in exchange for Israel releasing nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, who were largely detained for involvement in terrorist activity. Top officials in the new Trump administration have said in recent weeks that the US will support Israel renewing military operations in Gaza if Hamas launches more attacks against the Jewish state and violates the agreement.
The ceasefire began on Sunday, when Hamas released three female Israeli civilian hostages.
Despite indicating cautious optimism about the ceasefire deal, Omar, one of the most strident critics of Israel in the US Congress, warned that the Trump administration could still worsen the plight of the Palestinians over the next four years.
“I do believe there is an incredible danger, and the possibility of having the West Bank annexed. There is a possibility of having UNWRA not getting funding from the United States. There is an incredible danger and possibility for there not to be humanitarian aid just in general to the Palestinians,” Omar said.
Some members of the Trump administration — including Mike Huckabee, who is US President Donald Trump’s pick for ambassador to Israel — have publicly professed their belief that the West Bank belongs to the Jewish state. In addition, Huckabee has said that he will officially refer to the West Bank as “Judea and Samaria” — terminology preferred by Israel.
On Monday, Trump signed an executive order temporarily suspending all US foreign assistance programs for 90 days pending reviews to determine whether they are aligned with his policy goals. One expected target of Trump’s that has received US finding is UNRWA, the controversial United Nations agency responsible for Palestinian refugees and their descendants. Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, Israel has also said that UNRWA has been deeply infiltrated by Hamas in Gaza, accusing some of its staff of taking part in the Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel. The Israeli government and research organizations have publicized findings showing numerous UNRWA-employed staff, including teachers and school principals, are active Hamas members who were directly involved in the attack, while many others openly celebrated it.
In contrast to Biden, Omar argued that Trump “understands the amount of leverage we have as a superpower, as a country that does hold the resources that Israel needs in order to continue the war.” She added that Biden administration officials, such as former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, allowed themselves to be “embarrassed” by Netanyahu, claiming that the Israeli premier rebuffed their requests for a ceasefire deal between the Jewish state and the terrorist organization.
US officials who tried to broker a ceasefire in Gaza for months have repeatedly claimed that Hamas was the chief obstacle to reaching an agreement.
In her interview, Omar urged the Trump administration to apply additional pressure to Israel, suggesting that the White House block arms shipments to the Jewish state.
“I mean, we obviously are supplying them with the weapons that they are utilizing, and, s,o we can institute an arms embargo, we can certainly make sure that we have a clear red line that is communicated to them,” Omar said.
The Trump administration has not publicly indicated any support for an arms embargo on Israel. According to reporting by Axios, Israeli Ambassador to the US Mike Herzog expects the White House to lift the Biden administration’s restriction on shipments of 2,000-pound bombs. In May 2024, the Biden administration blocked the delivery of such bombs to the Jewish state, citing fear of excessive civilian casualties in densely-populated areas of Gaza. Experts have argued that such bombs are necessary to reach Gaza’s underground tunnel network, which it has used to hide hostages and plan terrorist attacks.
“We believe that Trump is going to release, at the beginning of his term, the munitions that haven’t been released until now by the Biden administration,” Herzog told Axios.
Since being elected to Congress in 2018, Omar has established herself as a harsh critic of Israel. She has accused the Jewish state of committing “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza and erecting an”“apartheid” government in the West Bank. The lawmaker has also publicly declared support for the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement (BDS), which seeks to turn the Jewish state into an international pariah as a first step toward its eventual destruction.
Omar was among the first members of Congress to call for a ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza, falsely arguing that the Jewish state’s military operations “indiscriminately” killed Palestinian civilians.
The post Ilhan Omar Warns ‘Genocide’ Could Continue in Gaza, Calls for ‘Arms Embargo’ on Israel Amid Ceasefire With Hamas first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
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