US airman resigns over support for Israel in Gaza war

WASHINGTON

Mohammed Abu Hashem, a Palestinian-American US airman resigned after a career of 22 years over Washington's support for Israel in its war in Gaza, said a report on Tuesday.

Abu Hashem lost his aunt, and more than 20 neighbors and relatives were injured in an Israeli airstrike, said The Washington Post.

"His thoughts turned to Washington’s 'ironclad' support for Israel through policy and vast amounts of weaponry, and soon he concluded that 22 years was in fact enough," according to the report.

In an interview with the newspaper, the airman said it was emotional for him to know "the amount of bombs that are being supplied to Israel was the cause of her death."

"I knew right then that I can’t be part of the system that enabled this," Abu Hashem said.

The 41-year-old is the first known person to quit with such a direct connection to the war’s devastating civilian death toll in Gaza.

The report came a week after the resignation of a senior State Department expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and skeptic of President Joe Biden's handling of Israel's war on the besieged Gaza Strip that has killed more than 37,000 people.

Andrew Miller, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Israeli-Palestinian affairs, was a critic of Biden's "bear hug" approach to Israel during the war, and is described by people who know him as a stalwart supporter of Palestinian rights and statehood, the American daily reported earlier.

Miller told colleagues he was leaving his post because he had rarely been able to see family during the course of Israel's eight-month war.