Bernie Sanders says Israel shouldn't receive 'another nickel' in US military aid after State Dept. report

Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, said Israel shouldn't receive "another nickel" in U.S. military aid despite the findings of a recent State Department report.

"Any objective observer knows Israel has broken international law, it has broken American law, and in my view, Israel should not be receiving another nickel in U.S. military aid," Sanders said in an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press." "Look the facts are quite clear. Hamas is a terrible disgusting terrorist organization that began this war. Though what Israel has done over the last seven months has not just gone to war against Hamas, it has gone to war against the entire Palestinian people. And results have been absolutely catastrophic."

His remarks come in response to the U.S. State Department on Friday criticizing Israel’s use of U.S-supplied arms in a way that may be "inconsistent" in "mitigating civilian harm" in the war in Gaza.

The finding of "reasonable" evidence to conclude that the U.S. ally had breached international law protecting civilians in the way it conducted its war against Hamas was the strongest statement that the Biden administration has yet made on the matter. The report, which was sent to Congress on Friday and obtained by Fox News Digital, admitted that "Israel has had to confront an extraordinary military challenge: Hamas has embedded itself deliberately within and underneath the civilian population to use civilians as human shields."

The report added that "it is often difficult to determine facts on the ground in an active war zone of this nature and the presence of legitimate military targets across Gaza."

STATE DEPARTMENT CRITICIZES ISRAEL’S ATTEMPTS AT ‘MITIGATING CIVILIAN HARM’ IN GAZA WAR: REPORT

Citing figures from the