Bernie Sanders calls out Netanyahu's 'desperate, racist authoritarian' regime

• Bernie Sanders calls Benjamin Netanyahu a "desperate, racist authoritarian" for inflicting miseries on the Palestinian people.
  
• We should be leading the world in bringing the Palestinian and Israeli people together, says Sanders.
  
• Palestinian rights matter, Palestinians lives matter, he concludes his address at the Senate floor.
  

Ramping up pressure on Joe-Biden's administration to mediate growing conflagration in the Middle East, a leading progressive voice in Congress, Bernie Sanders, called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a "desperate, racist authoritarian" for inflicting miseries on the Palestinian people.

The US lawmaker was addressing the Senate floor on Wednesday where he called for an immediate cease-fire between the Israeli Defence Forces and Hamas.

Read more: US progressives seek to block arms sale to Israel

"We, Congress, must understand that in more than a decade of his right-wing rule in Isreal, Benjamin Netanyahu has cultivated increasingly intolerant and authoritarian type of racist nationalism," Sanders can be seen saying in the video shared by The Hill.

"Moreover, we should understand that these dangerous trends are not unique to Isreal. What is going on in Isreal is a political tragedy in my view but it is going on around the world including here in the United States. We are seeing the rise of the authoritarian nationalist movements," the US lawmaker pointed out.

He said that such movements exploit ethnic and rational hatreds in order to build power for corruption rather than justice and peace for the many.

Read more: Senior Hamas official thinks ceasefire efforts with Israel will succeed

"For the last four years, these movements have had a friend in Trump's White House and on January 6, those forces attacked this very chamber," Sanders noted.

He added: "In this moment of crisis, the US should be urging an immediate ceasefire. My colleagues, I strongly believe that the US has a major role to play in helping the world to build a more peaceful and prosperous future. One in which human rights are upheld and the life of every human being is valued."

We should be leading the world in bringing the Palestinian and Israeli people together. Palestinian rights matter, Palestinians lives matter, he concluded.

Israeli atrocities continue

Israel carried out over a dozen airstrikes on Gaza after midnight, targeting what it said was a weapons storage unit in the Gaza City home of a Hamas official, and military infrastructure in the homes of other commanders from the group. Medics said four people were wounded in one attack on the town of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Rocket sirens blared just after midnight in the southern Israeli town of Beersheba and in areas bordering Gaza, with no reports of casualties or damage. The workday began on Thursday with no alerts.

Since the fighting began on May 10, Palestinian health officials say 228 people have been killed in aerial bombardments that have worsened Gaza's already dire humanitarian situation.

Israeli authorities put the death toll to date at 12 in Israel, where repeated rocket attacks have caused panic and sent people rushing into shelters.