US Senator Bernie Sanders described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a "war criminal."

Sanders said - in an interview with MSNBC - that Gaza is experiencing a horrific humanitarian catastrophe, and that he will not attend Netanyahu's scheduled speech before Congress this week.

The American senator added that he would not attend Netanyahu's speech, "because he is a war criminal, and he should not have been invited in the first place. This is a real problem facing the Biden administration, but Trump will have a worse attitude toward it," according to what Al Jazeera reported.

He pointed out that "what Israel is doing now in its military campaign led by the extreme right-wing Netanyahu government is terrible."
Sanders called on Washington to do everything in its power to end the war and provide humanitarian aid to Gaza, which is experiencing a horrific humanitarian catastrophe.
Most Democratic lawmakers have already announced their intention to protest Netanyahu's speech, after inviting him in May to address Congress. About 100 members of the progressive Congressional Caucus in the House of Representatives and the Senate are expected to boycott Netanyahu's speech or protest against it in some way.

A few days ago, Sanders called on the US administration to stop supplying weapons to Israel. He said that the Israeli ground invasion of the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip led to the closure of the main crossings and the starvation of the population, and that America cannot continue to be complicit in the humanitarian catastrophe that is afflicting the Palestinians in the Strip.

Sanders said - in a tweet on his account on the X platform - that “the invasion of Rafah must mean cutting off all American military aid to the extreme right-wing government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”

He said, "The United States cannot continue to be complicit in the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, where there is no food, water, medicine, or fuel, and children are starving."

Sanders has previously considered the United States complicit in the tragedy that the Palestinian people are experiencing, and he said in a speech he delivered before the Senate early this year that he finds it difficult to understand why Congress does not act to stop the suffering of the Palestinians and address the humanitarian catastrophe they face in Gaza.