This week, 22 Republicans and all but three Democratic Senators voted to approve a $95 Billion Aid package that includes $14 Billion in Military Aid to Netanyahu’s Israel, as well as lesser-known language codifying the US defunding of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency. The bill also includes $40 Billion for Ukraine, but did not include funding for increased US border security, originally included in the text.

The vote, a product of an all-night session, came amid Israel’s continued bombardment of Southern Gaza, where 1.9 million people have been displaced and have no safe location to escape the violence.

Whether the bill will progress as written in the US House is unlikely, according to widespread reporting on the issue. But the newly ratified military support by many US Senators comes at a time when most countries and millions of people around the world are calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Allegations of US complicity in alleged war crimes and genocidal acts by Israel cannot be ignored.

In addition to the more than 26,000 people’s deaths– including more than 10,000 children, the widespread destruction of residential buildings, healthcare facilities and public infrastructure compounds the extreme humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

To understand the impacts of Israel and US strategies impacting the culture and lives of Palestinians, we turn to veteran reporter Chris Hedges, who has covered Middle East and African issues for decades. His newest report describes the destruction of 12 Universities in Gaza in stages, and the impacts for the besieged region.

The Israeli attacks on Gaza has included systematic attacks on Gaza’s cultural and educational institutions. Israel has damaged or destroyed all 12 of Gaza’s universities. Some 280 government schools and 65 UNRWA-run schools have also been destroyed or damaged, often resulting in dozens of fatalities. About 133 remaining schools are used to shelter those displaced by the assault. More than 85 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes amid continued Israeli ground and air offensive that has killed more than 25,000 people, including 10,000 children.

-Chris Hedges Report

Another topic of Hedge’s reporting also warns that all of the indicators are in place for a famine event to occur in the isolated Gaza Strip – especially as the US and European nations continue to defund the primary source of humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees through UNRWA programs.

All of this comes in addition to the expanded US military operations in the Middle East, that includes bombing campaigns in Iraq, Yemen and Syria. And with the widening of the war comes strong words and actions by Leaders in neighboring Lebanon, Jordan, Iran and now Egypt.