US Senator Elizabeth Warren said she believes Israel's conduct in its war on Gaza could be ruled as genocide by international courts during an event in Boston last week.
"If you want to do it as an application of law, I believe that they'll find that it is genocide, and they have ample evidence to do so," she said following an audience question during a Q&A at the Islamic Centre of Boston.
The Democratic senator's comments followed wider criticism of Israel's actions on the US political scene, with the White House also appearing to take a harder line over the devastating civilian death toll from the assault on Gaza.
"For me, it is far more important to say what Israel is doing is wrong. And it is wrong," she said.
"It is wrong to starve children within a civilian population in order to bend them to your will. It is wrong to drop 2,000-pound bombs in densely population civilian areas."
Warren said she wants people to look at Israel's actions in Gaza, "and talk about what the role of the United States is, in connection with supporting the Netanyahu government, who have put the people of Gaza in that position".
Her comments at the event were recorded in a video later posted by a GBH reporter on X on Monday.
A spokesperson for Warren issued a statement saying she had "commented on the ongoing legal process at the International Court of Justice, not sharing her views on whether genocide is occurring in Gaza", GBH reported.
BREAKING: Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) becomes the first US senator to say that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. She said starving and bombing civilians to death is genocide. WATCH pic.twitter.com/plkkaaf9rE
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba)
It further said that Warren was working with colleagues to push for a ceasefire, attain the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, condition US aid to Israel, and ensure greater flows of humanitarian aid into the enclave, which is currently facing famine.
Warren's comments come amid increasing criticism of Israel from within the Democrat Party, including from Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, who held Netanyahu as being one of four major obstacles for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
On Friday, 40 Democrat members of Congress, including Nancy Pelosi, signed a letter calling on Biden to halt the transfer of offensive arms to Israel, following a strike by Israel that killed seven humanitarian aid workers for the World Central Kitchen charity.
Since 7 October Israel's war on Gaza has killed 33,207 Palestinians, mostly women and children, with a further 75,933 injured.
In January the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found in an interim ruling that it is plausible that Israel's conduct in the war on Gaza violates the 1948 Genocide Convention.
