Despite an ongoing U.S.-brokered cease-fire that supposedly took effect Oct. 10, two more Palestinian children died after an Israeli drone strike occurred near Al-Farabi School in Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis.
Anti-establishment progressive New Jersey Democrat Lisa McCormick issued a forceful condemnation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday following the killing of two Palestinian brothers, Fadi and Jumaa Tamer Abu Asi, ages 8 and 11, who perished in the drone strike.
The children were gathering wood on Saturday when they were killed. Their bodies were brought to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, according to health officials.
“When children die, every argument falls flat,” McCormick said. “Nothing about this looks like a cease-fire, and nothing about it should ever feel acceptable. Let’s be clear: The killing has not stopped. Not in Gaza. Not in the West Bank. Not in the neighboring countries repeatedly struck by Israel.”
The killing of the Abu Asi brothers is part of what Palestinian officials say is a broader pattern of systematic cease-fire violations.
The Gaza Government Media Office says Israel has committed nearly 500 violations in the 44 days since the cease-fire began, resulting in hundreds of Palestinian deaths.
According to the office, Israel has carried out 497 documented violations, causing 342 civilian deaths, including at least 67 children. The agency reported 27 violations on Nov. 29 alone.
“The so-called ‘yellow line’ demarcating Israeli withdrawal has become a death zone for Palestinians,” McCormick said, referring to the boundary established in the cease-fire agreement. “Israel routinely shoots at Palestinians near this invisible line—many simply trying to return to their homes.”
McCormick said the violence extends far beyond Gaza, describing Israel as “escalating on all fronts to achieve what it could not during the war.”
In the West Bank, Israel has launched wide-scale military operations in the northern Tubas governorate. Local residents say the operations aim to thin out the population ahead of land seizures and settlement expansion.
In Lebanon, UNIFIL peacekeeping forces have reported about 10,000 violations of the cease-fire deal with Lebanon since November 2024, including roughly 2,500 land incursions and 7,500 airspace violations.
In Syria, Israeli forces have continued operating inside Syrian territory. Recent strikes killed 13 Syrians, including at least two children, according to regional officials.
McCormick placed responsibility squarely on Netanyahu’s government, saying the administration “has repeatedly demonstrated its disregard for international law and human life.”
She cited several factors she believes are undermining progress toward peace, including Netanyahu’s corruption trials and pressure from far-right coalition partners.
She also pointed to international legal actions, including ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on war crimes allegations, as well as what she called a contradiction between Israel’s rhetoric and reality.
She referenced RAND analyst Shira Efron, who has noted that the cease-fire agreement contradicts Israel’s repeated promises to deliver “total victory” and destroy Hamas.
“The uncomfortable truth is that this war, which has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians according to Gaza health authorities, has not achieved its stated objectives,” McCormick said, citing estimates that anywhere from 72,500 to 650,000 people have died in the conflict overall.
“A report from September 2025 suggested the real death toll could be closer to 680,000 by April 2025, with 380,000 of those being children under five,” McCormick said.
McCormick called for immediate international action, including a complete halt to attacks on civilians, full adherence to the cease-fire, an independent investigation into the killing of the Abu Asi brothers, accountability for violations of international law, and a fundamental reassessment of U.S. policy toward Israel and the war in Gaza.
“We must stop pretending that a cease-fire that kills children is a cease-fire at all,” she said. “The world cannot continue looking away while children are targeted and killed. I ask sincerely: Does this look like a cease-fire to you? Does it sound like one? The answer should shake us to our core and move us to action.”
Although she has been shunned by the political establishment, McCormick took two of five votes away from disgraced former US Senator Bob Menendez in the 2018 Democratic primary election, and she is exploring a race in the June 2, 2025, election on a bold platform that would cap personal wealth at $100 million and use the excess to fund government services that everybody needs.
The incumbent, Senator Cory Booker, has consistently supported the genocidal government led by Netanyahu.
She has fired back, charging leadership in both parties with serving the interests of “wealthy, plutocratic parasites, instead of the working class people.”