GOP Rep: Babies Killed in Gaza ‘Are Not Innocent Palestinian Civilians’

Joe Raedle/Getty
Joe Raedle/Getty

Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) stunningly claimed that babies in Gaza killed during Israel’s war against Hamas are “not innocent Palestinian civilians,” video shows.

Members of Codepink, a feminist anti-war group, confronted Mast on Tuesday, with one accusing the lawmaker of being “heartless.” “You haven’t seen the pictures of all the babies being killed?” Mast is asked in footage of the incident. “These are not innocent Palestinian civilians,” he replies.

Mast, who has previously volunteered with the Israeli military and wore an IDF uniform around the Capitol in October, has previously called for a moratorium on all U.S. aid to Gaza and the West Bank. According Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, the vast majority of the more than 26,000 people killed in the enclave since the war began are women and children. Israel launched its massive operation in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks, which killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli figures.

U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths on Thursday said the majority of Gaza’s housing units have either been destroyed or damaged, with three-quarters of the population now displaced. In the Codepink video, one activist says the destruction in Gaza is worse than that inflicted on Dresden during World War II.

“And there’s more infrastructure that needs to be destroyed,” Mast said.

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