Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, Rep. Rashida Tlaib criticize Biden after Gaza hospital explosion
(CBS DETROIT) - Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud and U.S. Rep Rashida Tlaib are criticizing the Biden Administration following the hospital explosion in Gaza City.
Palestinian officials blamed Israeli officials for the attack at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday, Oct. 17. Israeli officials claim a misfired rocket from the Islamic Jihad was the cause.
President Joe Biden, who went to Tel Aviv to show his support for Israel, made remarks stating that Israeli officials were not the ones behind the hospital attack.
"I'm deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday and based on what I've seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you," Biden said to Netanyahu and reporters in Tel Aviv. "But there's a lot of people out there who are not sure. So - we've got to overcome a lot of things."
When reporters asked the president why he was certain the Israelis were not responsible for the attack, he said it was due to data he received from the Defense Department.
Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud criticized Biden and other leaders for their response to the attack.
Here's Hammoud's full statement that he posted on social media:
"Today, my constituents are watching in shock and horror as our federal and statewide leaders remain silently complicit in some of the most horrific war crimes our eyes have witnessed, funded by our tax dollars. Emboldened by a green light from the Biden administration, the Israeli military has decimated Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza.
An estimated 500+ innocent lives obliterated in an instant, people as whole and human as you and I. The leaders of our government, both Republican and Democrat alike, have yet to find the courage to condemn the Israeli government's deliberate starvation of 2 million Palestinians, cutting off of water, and killing of journalists documenting atrocities.
So many in our Dearborn community carry the scars of war in our memories and our bodies. Countless community members, including members of my own family, know the horrors of Israeli military brutality firsthand, and watching that brutality unfold has revived traumas that never left. Still, nothing could have prepared us for the complete erasure of our voices and radio silence from those whom we elected to protect and represent us. Our family members trapped in Gaza have been ignored, our calls for a ceasefire drowned out by the drums of war and racist media coverage that dismisses the massacre of entire Palestinian families as collateral damage.
In Michigan, every one of our Federal and statewide officials must immediately call for a ceasefire to save lives, and they must demand justice for the Palestinian people. Failure to do so will never be forgotten."
Dearborn has the largest Muslim population per capita in the United States and elected Hammoud as its first Arab American mayor in 2021.
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, who is a Palestinian American, also slammed Biden after the hospital attack. In a post made on X, formerly Twitter, Tlaib said the following:
"@POTUS this is what happens when you refuse to facilitate a ceasefire & help de-escalate.
Your war and destruction only approach has opened my eyes and many Palestinian Americans and Muslims Americans like me. We will remember where you stood."
Last week, another representative filed a censure resolution against Tlaib, claiming she has a "long history of making anti-Semitic and anti-Israel remarks."
For more on the Hamas attack on Israel, visit here.