Washington DC - Senator Bernie Sanders on Wednesday announced he would bring several resolutions to the floor next week in a bid to end certain offensive weapons sales to Israel.

The joint resolutions of disapproval aim to block the transfer of certain military equipment worth around $20 billion, including joint direct attack munitions and tank and artillery shells. It will be the first time in US history that Congress votes to restrict weapons sales to Israel.

Domestic law prohibits arms sales to countries that are carrying out gross human rights violations and restricting American humanitarian aid – conditions Sanders says Israel is clearly violating.

"There is no longer any doubt that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu's extremist government is in clear violation of U.S. and international law as it wages a barbaric war against the Palestinian people in Gaza," the Vermont independent said in a press release.

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Sanders cited the bombing of Gazan homes, hospitals, schools, universities, and more as well as the brutal blockade on humanitarian assistance as examples of Israeli crimes.

"This war has been conducted almost entirely with American weapons and $18 billion in U.S. taxpayer dollars," Sanders said. "Israel has dropped U.S.-provided 2,000-pound bombs into crowded neighborhoods, killed hundreds of civilians to take out a handful of Hamas fighters, and made little effort to distinguish between civilians and combatants."

"These actions are immoral and illegal," he added.

Earlier this week, Demand Progress and a coalition of more than 55 other groups launched the No Weapons for War campaign in support of the resolutions.

The campaign website notes that so far, only four out of 100 senators have indicated support for at least one of the measures: Sanders, Peter Welch (Democrat-Vermont), Jeff Merkley (Democrat-Oregon), and Brian Schatz (Democrat-Hawaii).

Members of the feminist antiwar organization CODEPINK visited Sanders' congressional office on Wednesday to ask his staff about the upcoming resolutions vote.

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"I expect we'll have significantly more senators supporting when they come to the floor," a staffer tells the activists in a video shared on social media.

"We're hoping for at least 20," CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin says, to which the staffer responds, "Knock on wood!"

Meanwhile, the death toll in Gaza since October 2023 has risen to at least 43,736 people, according to the territory's health ministry. The British medical journal Lancet and other experts believe the true number to be far greater, upwards of 186,000 as of July 2024.

"The United States cannot continue to be complicit in this war by supplying more military aid and weaponry to the Netanyahu government," Sanders insisted in Wednesday's news release. "Congress must act to block these arms sales."