Clinton takes Sanders to task over Gaza comments

Hillary Clinton blasts fellow Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders over comments he made saying Israel reacted with disproportionate force during its military campaign in the Gaza Strip in 2014.

“Hamas provokes Israel. They often pretend to have people in civilian garb acting as though they are civilians who are Hamas fighters,” she tells CNN’s State of the Union, according to Politico. “It’s a very different undertaking for Israel to target those who are targeting them. And I think Israel has had to defend itself, has a right to defend itself.”

Sanders came under fire last week from Israeli officials and the ADL after he suggested in an interview with the New York Daily News that Israel had killed 10,000 innocents in Gaza in 2014. The former Israeli ambassador to the US Michael Oren, now a Knesset lawmaker with Kulanu, even accused him of spreading a “blood libel.”

Sanders, for his part, doubles down on the contention that Israel reacted disproportionately in Gaza, after acknowledging over the weekend that he got the death toll wrong.

“Of course we’re going to support Israel, but you cannot ignore the needs of the Palestinian people,” Sanders tells CNN. “We will not succeed to ever bring peace in that region unless we also treat the Palestinians with dignity and respect.”