Senator Bernie Sanders is preparing to issue several resolutions that would halt more than $20 billion in U.S. arms sales to Israel, a small effort but the strongest response yet from Congress to the destruction, killing and massacres committed by the Israeli occupation forces in its ongoing war on Gaza since October 7, 2023.

In a letter to his Senate colleagues on Wednesday, the independent senator from Vermont said the United States should not be “complicit in this humanitarian catastrophe.” The measure could eventually force a vote to block arms sales to Israel, though the Senate is expected to overwhelmingly vote against the effort.

“Much of this carnage in Gaza was carried out using military equipment provided by the United States,” Sanders said in his letter.

Sanders is specifically targeting five sales deals that he says do not comply with U.S. laws that require arms transfers to be “consistent with internationally recognized human rights, advance U.S. foreign policy interests, and avoid U.S. complicity in human rights abuses.”

His efforts focus on the sale of $262 million in Joint Direct Attack Munitions, $774 million in 120mm tank shells, $61 million in 120mm high-explosive mortar shells, $583 million in medium tactical vehicles and $18 billion in F-15 fighter jets.

It is noteworthy that the United States and the American taxpayer bear the cost of these sales.

The Arms Export Control Act gives Congress the power to block a large arms sale by passing a resolution of disapproval. Although such a resolution has failed to pass Congress and would survive a presidential veto, the law requires the Senate to vote if a resolution is introduced, and this has sometimes led to angry debates that have embarrassed past presidents.

Under Senate rules, Sanders can force a vote on his bill, unlike the House, which would have to go through committee.

The arms sales Sanders is targeting are specifically aimed at the most significant arms sale to Israel in American history, which was announced last August months after Congress finally passed $14 billion in emergency military aid from President Joe Biden’s administration to Israel.

Earlier this summer, two key Democratic leaders in Congress informally signed off on the sale after initially expressing opposition following intense pressure from the Biden administration and pro-Israel advocates to allow the sale to move forward.

The powerful Israeli lobby group AIPAC denounced Sanders’ decision as “aimed at eroding Israel’s security, undermining the U.S.-Israel alliance, and weakening America and our ally. While Iran and its proxies attack Israel, [Sanders] wants to leave it vulnerable and alone,” the group said, encouraging its supporters to lobby senators against the legislation.

Israel launched its brutal war on the besieged Gaza Strip after Hamas fighters managed on October 7, 2023, to infiltrate the towns and settlements of the Gaza envelope, killing about 1,200 people, including 311 Israeli soldiers, and kidnapping about 250 hostages, according to Israeli statistics.

Since then, Israeli military forces have flattened vast swaths of Gaza, forcing nearly all of its 2.3 million residents from their homes, spreading hunger and deadly disease and killing more than 41,000 people, most of them women and children, according to Palestinian health authorities.

US officials told US media last June that the United States, Israel's largest ally and arms supplier, had sent Israel more than 10,000 2,000-pound (900-kg) high-explosive bombs and thousands of Hellfire missiles since the start of October 7.