US Senate rejects measure to force human rights report on Israel

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday rejected a resolution that would have forced the State Department to produce a report within 30 days examining whether Israel committed human rights violations in its campaign against Hamas in Gaza.
As voting continued, 54 senators voted to set the resolution aside, thus meaning it cannot move ahead in the 100-member Senate.
The vote was forced by Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats. While the measure was handily defeated, it reflected growing concern among some of President Joe Biden’s fellow Democrats, especially on the left, over the supply of U.S. weapons to Israel despite the Gaza conflict’s steep toll on Palestinian civilians.
“We must ensure that U.S. aid is being used in accordance with human rights and our own laws,” Sanders said in a speech before the vote urging support for the resolution, lamenting what he described as the Senate’s failure to consider any measure looking at the war’s effect on civilians.