Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley is seemingly blaming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the violence that took place today in the Middle East in a new post to social media.
“Netanyahu’s invasion of Lebanon is putting millions of people at risk, forcing thousands to be displaced, and inciting a regional war,” Pressley posted to X, formerly known as Twitter. “The escalating violence must end. In Lebanon, in Gaza, and across the region.”
Iran has fired a series of missiles at Israel in what appeared to be the latest escalation as Israeli forces battle the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement in Lebanon.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., conducts a news conference in the Capitol Visitor Center on “the disparate impact of school disciplinary policies and practices on Black and brown girls in K-12 public schools,” on Thursday, September 19, 2024. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images/ Luiz Rampelotto/EuropaNewswire/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images
The attack was later confirmed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which said “dozens of ballistic missiles targeting important military and security targets” were launched in “self-defense” over the killing of Hamas Political Bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July and in response to “the intensification of the regime’s evils with the support of the United States” over attacks in Gaza and Lebanon.
Newsweek reached out to Pressley’s office for comment but did not hear back immediately.
Pressley had called Hamas’ attacks on Israel last October “devastating” and “deeply alarming.” She had called for “an immediate ceasefire and de-ecalation.”
“It is long past time to stop this cycle of violence & trauma, and work toward a just & lasting peace in the region,” Pressley said at the time.
Pressley, along with her other Massachusetts delegation peer Representative Jim McGovern, signed a letter to urge for steps to be taken to minimize suffering in Gaza. She has reposted articles about Israeli missile strikes in Gaza as well.
The Iranian airstrike comes as part of the escalation in the Hezbollah-Israel conflict, which started after the Iranian-backed group’s attacks against Israel, just days after Hamas’ attack on the country on October 7.
Pro-Palestine protestors gather in New York City to protest Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to New York City on September 26, 2024.
Katie Godowski/MediaPunch /IPX
In 2021, Pressley spoke to the House about Israel-Palestine violence, calling for the United States to exert pressure on Israel after there was a major outbreak of violence in May of that year.
“Without the U.S. exerting pressure on Israel to de-escalate, the explosive situation in Jerusalem is igniting further violence not just in the city but beyond,” Pressley said. “It is clear there is a grave asymmetry of power here. Palestinians do not have a sovereign state and the protections that come with it.”
Trump had released a statement earlier Tuesday noting that when he was president, “Iran was in total check.”
“They were starved for cash, fully contained, and desperate to make a deal,” Trump said. “Kamala flooded them with American cash and, ever since, they’ve been exporting terror all over, and unraveling the Middle East.”
The former President also released a new advertisement on Tuesday seemingly blaming Harris for the missile strike.
“Hamas saw Harris’ anti-Israel statements and will use it as a green light to keep murdering Israelis, and Iran thinks Harris is so incompetent new intel shows that they’re trying to help Harris win the election,” the ad stated.
President Joe Biden posted to X, saying he and Harris have met with their “national security team to discuss Iranian plan to launch an imminent missile attack against Israel.”
“We discussed how the United States is prepared to help Israel defend against these attacks, and protect American personnel in the region,” the post read.
When Newsweek reached out to Trump’s campaign for additional comment, spokesman Steven Cheung pointed toward the former President’s statement.
The Republican nominee went on to note that under his administration there was no war in the Middle East or Europe as well as “harmony in Asia, no inflation, no Afghanistan catastrophe.”
Iran has been the center of a lot of controversies in the US as well this election season. Just days after a would-be assassin’s bullet grazed Trump’s ear in July, the FBI announced that Iran had allegedly been separately plotting to kill the former president. Federal officials later revealed that Iran had hacked and stolen confidential information from the Trump campaign.
“It is no surprise that Iran desperately wants Kamala Harris to be President, because they know as long as she is in power, they can take advantage of America,” Trump said in his statement today. “That is why they have tried to target me.”
In August, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released a statement identifying “increasingly aggressive Iranian activity during this election cycle, specifically involving influence operations targeting the American public and cyber operations targeting presidential campaigns.”
“This includes the recently reported activities to compromise former President Trump’s campaign,” the statement added, “which the IC [intelligence community] attributes to Iran.”
Iranian officials, however, told Newsweek the U.S. intelligence claims were baseless.
A group, Iranians for Trump, was launched on September 3 as well, due to what it describes as the failed work to confront Iran by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
