Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), a member of “The Squad” of anti-Israel lawmakers, on Wednesday accused Israel of being behind the pager explosions of Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon, for which Israel has not claimed responsibility and has not commented on.
In a post on social media site X, Ocasio-Cortez, who is known by her initial AOC, said the explosions killed innocent civilians.
“Israel’s pager attack in Lebanon detonated thousands of handheld devices across a slew of public spaces, seriously injuring and killing innocent civilians,” she wrote.
“This attack clearly and unequivocally violates international humanitarian law and undermines US efforts to prevent a wider conflict,” charged Ocasio-Cortez.
“Congress needs a full accounting of the attack, including an answer from the State Department as to whether any US assistance went into the development or deployment of this technology,” she concluded.
While Israel has not commented on the pager explosions on Tuesday and walkie-talkie explosions on Wednesday, it has been widely speculated that the Mossad was behind them.
Hezbollah blamed Israel for the explosions and has vowed to retaliate. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi condemned the explosions, calling them a "terrorist act" and blaming Israel.
On Wednesday, Iran's Ambassador to the UN, Amir-Saeed Iravani, sent a letter to the Security Council in which he stated that his country will respond to the attack against its ambassador in Lebanon.
His comments come after Iran’s Ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, lost one eye and suffered an injury to the other in Tuesday’s Hezbollah pager explosions.
Ocasio-Cortez is no stranger to criticism of Israel going back to 2019, when she criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 News while arguing that criticizing Israel’s policies is not being antisemitic.
In a previous radio interview, Ocasio-Cortez said that Israel is “criminal” in its treatment of Palestinian Arabs, whom she said have no other choice but to “riot” against the Jewish state.
Before that, she said that cutting military and economic aid to Israel as a way to signal opposition to Israeli policies should be “on the table.” AOC has also called Israel an “apartheid state”.
In March, Ocasio-Cortez accused Israel of genocide against Palestinian Arabs. She later defended her usage of the term “genocide”, telling CNN that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has “crossed the threshold of intent.”