Dem congressman Jamaal Bowman demands US take in Palestinian refugees

Bowman noted that "fifty percent of the population in Gaza are children," and that the "international community as well as the United States should be prepared to welcome refugees from Palestine while being very careful to vet and not allow members of Hamas."

Bowman remains under investigation for yanking a fire alarm at the House office building to prevent a vote on a 45-day stopgap spending bill favored by Republicans.

Republican members of both the House and Senate have made it very clear that they do not plan to allow an influx of Palestinian refugees, vetted or not. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has promised he would oppose having Palestinians resettle in the United States, as did Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), per the New York Post.

Rubio emphasized that the US is "in no position to accept additional refugees, especially from a region with as high a risk of terrorism, given our nation’s inability to secure our own border or vet those who are already here."

Meanwhile, Reps. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) and Andy Ogles (R-TN) have stated their intention to bring a piece of legislation called the "Guaranteeing Aggressors Zero Admission Act" or the GAZA Act for short. This law aims to forbid the Biden administration from issuing visas to people who are seeking to live in the US after leaving Gaza.

As this is going on, numerous Arab states have reportedly declined to take in Palestinian refugees. "Jordan's King Abdullah warned 'against any attempt to forcibly displace Palestinians from all Palestinian territories or cause their internal displacement, calling for preventing a spillover of the crisis into neighbouring countries and the exacerbation of the refugee issue,'" Reuters reported.

The head of the 22-member Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, urgently appealed to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to condemn "this insane Israeli effort to transfer the population".

Senator Cotton argued that the nation of Iran is "responsible for the death and destruction" of its "proxy war" of the ongoing conflict and thus "should be responsible for refugees as well."

The White House refused to clarify whether or not it would be taking in new refugees due to the conflict.

"We continue to provide support to Palestinian refugees through the UN,” stated a White House spokesman. “The United States also has a worldwide refugee resettlement program in partnership with The UN Refugee Agency."