U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy said he has two takeaways on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict following his recent trip to Tel Aviv, Israel.

On Oct. 7, the decades-long conflict came to a head when Hamas — a Sunni Islamist political militant group that governs the Gaza Strip and 1.5 million Palestinians — attacked southern Israeli cities across the border. The next day Israel declared war and retaliated by dropping bombs on the Gaza Strip and blocking supply lines for fuel, water and food.

Cassidy spent less than one day in Tel Aviv to meet with Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, the war cabinet and Benny Gantz, a retired Israeli general and former minister of defense.

The first of his takeaways is that “Israel is looking to protect civilians,” including the distribution of leaflets to inform Palestinians in the northern part of the Gaza Strip to evacuate to the south.

“Israeli leaders made it clear that the people of Israel expect the government to provide safety for Israeli citizens.”

He noted Israelis have also asked for humanitarian aid for Palestinians.

The second important point is “while it is unclear Iran played an active role in activating the attack, they enabled it through a course of time, given the capabilities for Hamas to do that which they expected to do,” he said.

Cassidy also said Hamas is using Palestinian civilians as a “tool of war” and “a human shield” between Hammas and Israel, “encouraging them to stay in harm’s way so that then Israel can be blamed for civilian deaths.”

He said Hamas terrorists are attacking Israeli forces while wearing civilian clothing and using civilian vehicles, and are operating secretly under homes, hospitals and schools.

ABC news reported on Oct. 11 that 2,329 people were killed and 9714 were injured in Gaza as a result of “Israeli retaliatory attacks.” Hamas forces have led to at least 1,300 fatalities and 3,227 injuries in Israel.

Civilians in the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel have fallen victim to the rising tensions before war was declared earlier this month. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, between the beginning of 2008 and Sept. 19, 2023, there were 6,407 Palestinian fatalities and 308 Israeli fatalities.

“The human toll across Israel and Gaza is heartbreaking, but we need to be clear who is responsible for these deaths. It is Hamas. Not only did Hamas begin the war with a depraved attack upon Israeli civilians, but they’re now using their own people as human shields.”

He commented on criticisms that have been made following the international backing of Israel.

“Some are trying to establish an equivalency between the depravity of Hamas, who wished to kill all Jews simply because they’re Jews, and Israel who’s looking to defend its own people and asking for humanitarian aid for the Palestinians.”

Those establishing those equivalency aren’t recognizing the harm Hamas is causing Palestinians living in territory, he said.

“Hamas is having a war on the Palestinian people as much as they are on the Israeli people, and they’ll be more Palestinians killed than Israelis, but they will all be secondary to Hamas initiating this war and then attempting to limit the ability of the Palestinian people to get out of harm’s way.”

Israel is turning on water and attempting to ship food, fuel and medicine to the south of Gaza, but many shipments have been stolen from a United Nation’s station in southern Gaza due to a lack of security, which must be provided by Hamas, as Hamas is responsible for the administration of the territory.

“Hamas’ evil is not only in killing children and innocent civilians in Israel, inflicting damage upon their own people in the north, but they’re not providing the security in the south for the supplies that are there to be able to be used in a way which would benefit the Palestinians that have taken refuge in south Gaza.”

Cassidy does not support sending United States troops to the area to fight on the ground, but noted that about 2,000 Marines have been deployed to provide non-combat services, such as medical care.