Muslim-American congresswomen Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib slam Israel over Gaza massacres

This comes after at least 24 Palestinians, including a pregnant woman, were killed in Israeli strikes on the strip over the past 48 hours, with US President Donald Trump coming out strongly in support of Israel's deadly actions.

"How many more protesters must be shot, rockets must be fired, and little kids must be killed until the endless cycle of violence ends?," tweeted Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, on Sunday night.

"The status quo of occupation and humanitarian crisis in Gaza is unsustainable. Only real justice can bring about security and lasting peace," she added.

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Omar's close ally Palestinian-American Rashida Tlaib had strong words for US mainstream media, singling out the New York Times for 'dehumanising' Palestinians in their coverage of Gaza.

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"When will the world stop dehumanising our Palestinian people who just want to be free? Headlines like this & framing it in this way just feeds into the continued lack of responsibility on Israel who unjustly oppress & target Palestinian children and families," the Michigan Democrat tweeted, over a headline by the US daily.

Fighting broke out between Palestinian factions and Israel after four Palestinians were killed and two Israeli soldiers were wounded during the weekly demonstration at the Gaza-Israel border on Friday. 

Gaza has been under a cripping Israeli siege since 2007 and its residents have been calling for an end to the blockade in weekly 'Great Return March' protests held since the summer of 2018. During those protests, Israel has killed hundreds of mostly unarmed Palestinians gathered at the border fence.

Israel has also considered protest props such as incendiary balloons launched over the fence as sufficient pretext to launch deadly airstrikes on positions manned by Hamas, the Islamist Palestinian group that has run the enclave since 2007.

This usually triggers rocket strikes fired by Gaza factions in retaliation. While these limited-payload projectiles often inflict casualties on the Israelis side, the death toll dwarfs in comparison to the number of Palestinian civilian casualties killed in Israeli military operations.

On Sunday, US President Trump tweeted his full support for Israel's strikes, calling Hamas 'terrorists'.  

"Once again, Israel faces a barrage of deadly rocket attacks by terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad. We support Israel 100 [percent] in its defence of its citizens," Trump said on Twitter Sunday.

"To the Gazan people - these terrorist acts against Israel will bring you nothing but more misery. END the violence and work towards peace - it can happen!"