Wendy Sherman Says Netanyahu Created Genocide in Gaza, Urges Continued U.S. Support for Israel

A debate over the war in Gaza has sharpened inside U.S. political circles after former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman used the word “genocide” to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza while also insisting the United States must keep supporting Israel.

In an exchange with Bloomberg, Sherman said Prime Minister Netanyahu “has, in essence, created a genocide in Gaza that has destabilized the Middle East,” while also arguing that “It is critical that Israel remains an ally of the US and we protect the right of a Jewish state.”

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The same interview included Sherman’s insistence that she “support Israel and we must continue to support Israel,” even as she said “there was a slaughter of the Palestinian people in Gaza.”

The Mondoweiss account says Sherman later appeared on CNN and explained, “Things have changed, I spend a lot of time with younger people,” adding, “I support Israel and we must continue to support Israel. But there was a slaughter of the Palestinian people in Gaza.”

Mondoweiss frames Sherman as “the most senior official to use the word in relation to Israel,” and notes that Sherman “left the White House in July 2023.”

The article also ties the language dispute to internal Democratic politics, citing that “56% of Democrats say military aid to Israel needs to be decreased.”

It further reports that DNC chair Ken Martin was pressed by Pod Save America’s Jon Favreau about an “autopsy report” on Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, with Martin saying, “We want to keep the focus on the lessons.”

While U.S. political debate has focused on the framing of genocide, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has centered its Gaza reporting on water deprivation and the destruction of water and sanitation systems.

Multiple outlets describe MSF’s report “Water as a Weapon,” published Tuesday, as warning that Israel is using water as a weapon of collective punishment and engineering scarcity that interlocks with other harms.

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Euronews says the report cited data from the United Nations, the European Union, and the World Bank indicating that Israel has destroyed or damaged about 90 percent of the water and sanitation infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.

MSF’s Emergency Director Claire Sanfilippo is quoted warning, “Israeli authorities know that life ends without water,” and adding, “Nevertheless, water infrastructure in Gaza has been deliberately and systematically destroyed, while at the same time it continues to block the entry of supplies related to water.”

The MSF report also alleges that desalination plants, wells, pipelines, and sewage networks have become unusable or inaccessible, and that water trucks and wells operated by MSF were shot at or destroyed.

Euronews reports that in the past month alone MSF supplied more than 5.3 million liters of water per day, meeting the minimum needs of more than 407,000 people, or about one-fifth of the territory’s population.

It also says a third of supply requests were rejected or ignored, and that MSF warned water deprivation plus catastrophic living conditions creates “a perfect environment for the spread of diseases.”

In the same reporting, the Israeli Defense Ministry body overseeing Palestinian civil affairs criticized the report as a “baseless claim,” stating that water supplies “consistently exceed humanitarian standards” and that Israel “does not block access to water but facilitates it and provides water from its own sources.”

MSF’s own account, as carried by a local Western outlet, expands on the health and hygiene consequences of water access restrictions and describes specific patterns of harm.

The Médecins sans frontières report says it “denounces Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza through the systematic and deliberate denial of water imposed on its inhabitants,” and calls on Israeli authorities to “immediately restore sufficient water access for Palestinians in Gaza.”

It quotes Claire San Filippo saying, “Israeli authorities know that without water, life stops. Yet they have systematically and deliberately destroyed water infrastructure in Gaza, while consistently blocking the entry of water-related equipment,” and adds, “Palestinians have been injured and killed as they were simply trying to access water.”

The report describes how, “In the absence of toilets, communities are forced to dig holes in the sand, which overflow and contaminate the environment and the groundwater,” and it links that to disease spread including “respiratory infections, skin diseases, and diarrheal diseases.”

The outlet provides specific medical figures, saying that “In 2025, skin diseases accounted for nearly 18% of MSF’s general medical consultations,” and that “Between May and August 2025, nearly 25% of people reported having suffered from gastrointestinal problems in the preceding month.”

It also describes MSF’s operational constraints, saying that “Israeli army movement orders prevented MSF teams from accessing areas where they were providing water to hundreds of thousands of people,” leading to “interruptions of essential services and the loss of vital infrastructure.”

The report includes a personal testimony from Hanan, a Palestinian from the city of Gaza, who said, “My grandson was in Nuseirat, in July 2025. He had gone to fetch drinking water,' recalls Hanan, a Palestinian from the city of Gaza.”

MSF also quantifies its own water output, stating that “in March 2026… MSF produced or distributed more than 5.3 million liters of water per day,” equivalent to “the minimum needs of more than 407,000 people — about one in five residents of Gaza.”

The Gaza war has also become a focal point for political confrontation in Scotland, where STV’s leaders debate turned on Labour’s position on Israel and a motion to boycott Israel passed in the Scottish Parliament.

The outlet thenational.scot reports that ROSS Greer skewered Anas Sarwar over Labour’s support for Israel during the “genocide in Gaza,” and says Sarwar tried to separate himself from the UK Government’s support of Israel.

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In the debate, Greer said, “When Greens brought proposals to the Scottish Parliament for Scotland to boycott Israel because of the genocide they're committing in Palestine, Labour voted against it,” and added that the UK Labour Government “has armed Israel's genocide on Gaza and literally trained Israeli soldiers here in the UK.”

Sarwar responded by insisting, “Let me be really clear, it is a genocide,” and said, “The person to blame for this genocide is Benjamin Netanyahu.”

Sarwar also said he “look[s] forward to the day that he stands trial at the ICC and the ICJ,” and Greer pressed him on whether he believed Sarwar was a war criminal by asking, “why are you selling him arms?”

The exchange included Sarwar’s agreement that Netanyahu is a war criminal, with Greer stating, “Ben Netanyahu is a war criminal. You're absolutely right,” and then adding, “The UK Labour government are selling him arms and training his army.”

The reporting describes the boycott motion’s passage in September 2025, stating it was “passed by 62 votes to 31, with 21 abstentions,” and that “Scottish Labour MSPs abstained.”

It also quotes the motion’s requested policy package, saying it asked for “the Scottish and UK Governments to immediately impose a package of boycotts, divestment and sanctions targeted at the state of Israel and at companies complicit in its military operations and its occupation of Palestine.”

Legal battles over genocide allegations in Gaza are also unfolding at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), where the U.S. has filed arguments in response to South Africa’s case.

Le Monde.fr reports that Washington “waited until the last moment to come to Israel’s aid before the International Court of Justice (ICJ),” describing the case as brought on December 30, 2023 by South Africa accusing the State of Israel of violating the Genocide Convention.

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The outlet says the American ally told ICJ judges that the “genocide allegations against Israel are false,” and it places that filing date at March 12.

Le Monde.fr also describes the procedural window, stating that “The 195 member states of the Court had until March 12 to request to intervene in the case,” and it frames the intervention process as each state submitting an opinion “supposed to remain strictly legal on the merits of the procedure: genocide.”

The article emphasizes the evidentiary and intent questions that states must address, including “How to prove it? What evidence is admissible? What are the criteria for the specific intent to commit genocide?” and it notes that the case raises questions about whether a state such as South Africa, “whose population is not the direct victim of such a violation,” can bring the procedure.

Le Monde.fr says that “Since the ICJ was seized more than two years ago, 23 states have participated in this written stage of the proceedings.”

It also states that the court’s process is “a hard-fought legal battle” and that the U.S. filing is “highly political,” aiming to delegitimize Israel and the Jewish people “in order to justify and encourage terrorism against them.”

The outlet’s narrative positions the intervention timing as a key element of the legal contest, repeating that Washington waited until the last moment to come to Israel’s aid.