Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., attacked Israel\u2019s response to an unprecedented assault by Hamas in an extensive thread on social media Monday.<\/p>\n
Omar, a longtime critic of Israel and advocate for Palestinians, seemed to equate the Israeli victims killed by Hamas terrorists this weekend and Palestinians killed in the ongoing Israeli response.<\/p>\n
\u2018Just as we honor the humanity of the hundreds of innocent Israeli civilians and 9 Americans who were killed this weekend, we must honor the humanity of the innocent Palestinian civilians who have been killed and whose lives are upended,\u2019 she wrote.<\/p>\n
Omar went on to highlight the hardships of living in Gaza, accusing Israel of operating an \u2018apartheid\u2019 state in an attempt to explain violence by Hamas.<\/p>\n
\u2018Palestinian residents of the West Bank have scarcely better lives than Gazans \u2014 with the routine destruction of their ancestral homes, destruction of their crops, and violent attacks by Israeli settlers,\u2019 Omar wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.<\/p>\n
\u2018Palestinians have few recourses for justice and accountability. Attacks by the IDF and settlers against Palestinians are regularly met with impunity. Efforts to seek justice in international courts are stonewalled by the Israeli government, with U.S. support,\u2019 she added. \u2018As the world is condemning Hamas\u2019s attacks, we must also oppose an Israeli military response that has already taken the lives of hundreds of Palestinians, including nearly two dozen children.\u2019<\/p>\n
Omar\u2019s office did not respond to questions from Fox News Digital asking her to elaborate on the thread.<\/p>\n
The congresswoman did not clarify how she believed Israel should have responded to Saturday\u2019s attack, which has since left at least 1,000 Israelis dead and 2,700 more wounded. The Minnesota Democrat\u2019s only suggestion for a \u2018solution to this horror\u2019 was \u2018a negotiated peace \u2014 with Israelis and Palestinians enjoying equal rights and security guarantees.\u2019<\/p>\n
Later in the thread, Omar said that Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had called all Palestinians \u2018human animals\u2019 in comments earlier this week, though his full statement made clear that he was referring only to Hamas terrorists.<\/p>\n
FAMILIES OF ISRAELIS FEARED KIDNAPPED BY HAMAS TERRORISTS SPEAK OUT<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2018We are imposing a complete siege on Gaza. There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything will be closed,\u2019 Gallant said. \u2018We are fighting human animals and we act accordingly.\u2019<\/p>\n Israeli forces have deployed tens of thousands of troops to the area around Gaza City, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suggested a ground invasion may be imminent.<\/p>\n Other statements from Omar have sparked controversy in the past.<\/p>\n When she took office in 2019, she soon had to answer for a now-deleted 2012 tweet in which she wrote, \u2018Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.\u2019 She later expressed regret, saying the \u2018unfortunate words were the only words\u2019 she could \u2018think about expressing at that moment\u2019 in reference to Israel\u2019s 2012 operation against Hamas in Gaza.<\/p>\n Also in 2019, speaking at a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) fundraiser, Omar said: \u2018CAIR was founded after 9\/11 because they recognized that some people did something, and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.\u2019 Critics accused her of trying to downplay the actions of terrorists by describing it as \u2018some people did something.\u2019 She later clarified, \u2018Many Americans found themselves now having their civil rights stripped from them, and so what I was speaking to was the fact that as a Muslim, not only was I suffering as an American who was attacked on that day, but the next day I woke up as my fellow Americans were now treating me as a suspect.\u2019<\/p>\n Also, in January 2023, Omar responded to the outrage over a 2019 tweet in which she described America\u2019s relationship with Israel\u00a0as \u2018all about the Benjamins,\u2019 a tweet for which she later apologized.<\/p>\n \u2018I certainly did not or was not aware that the word \u2018hypnotized\u2019 was a trope. I wasn\u2019t aware of the fact that there are tropes about Jews and money. That has been very enlightening part of this journey,\u2019 she told CNN.<\/p>\n Fox News\u2019 Yael Halon and Houston Keene contributed to this report.<\/p>\n