Gov. Hochul was headed to Israel on Tuesday to support the country in its war with Hamas — which took at least one New Yorker hostage — making her diplomatic mission as Democratic divisions deepen over America’s role in the conflict.
Before flying overseas, Hochul met Tuesday morning in Washington with Jeff Zients, the White House chief of staff, for a discussion about Israel and the migrant crisis in New York City, according to the governor’s office.
After the meeting, the governor was expected to fly to Israel. Her office declined to provide details about her flight, citing security concerns.
At a virtual news conference on Tuesday, Hochul said she was making her trip to “show solidarity with the people of Israel” and to offer resources.
The trip came as Palestinian officials said an Israeli attack on Tuesday killed hundreds of people at a Gaza hospital. Israel blamed an Islamist group for the tragedy.
“Israel has a right to defend itself against Hamas,” said Hochul, a Buffalo Democrat. “We also must make sure that civilians get humanitarian aid and lament the loss of any life of innocent civilians.”
President Biden is also expected to arrive in Israel on Wednesday. Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Brooklyn Democrat and the majority leader, visited Israel over the weekend.
Hochul suggested she intended to “hear firsthand from survivors” of Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The governor is expected to return to New York on Friday. She declined to describe her itinerary in detail.
Hamas’ rampage killed more than 1,400 people, including the Israeli daughter of a Manhattan mother. A Long Islander, Omer Neutra, 22, who was serving in the Israeli military, was taken hostage, according to his synagogue.
The State Department said Monday that 13 Americans were unaccounted for after the attack. It did not say how many were from New York.
Israel has responded to the Hamas attack with overwhelming force in Gaza, where food, water and medicine are running low, and more than 1 million people have been forced to flee, according to the United Nations.
As it lashes Gaza with airstrikes, Israel has blocked supplies into the strip. More than 2,700 Palestinians have died, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, with another 1,200 people believed missing under the rubble.
New York City is home to about 1.6 million Jews, according to the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York. It also has a significantly smaller Palestinian population; the exact size is not clear, but could number in the tens of thousands.
Critics have charged that Hochul has not offered sufficient sympathy to Palestinians. At a news conference last week, the governor said her message to Palestinian New Yorkers was: “Reject Hamas.”
“Hamas is a terrorist organization,” Hochul said. “They should not define the Palestinians who reject the violence.”
Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, a Queens Democrat, said in an interview Monday that he saw Hochul’s comments as a “vile dehumanization of Palestinians, willfully ignoring the devastation Palestinians are currently facing.”
Responding to the criticism on Tuesday, Hochul said she would “defend and protect every single New Yorker” and asserted that her commitment to Jewish and Palestinian New Yorkers “is strong.”
Mamdani and Assemblywoman Marcela Mitaynes, a Brooklyn progressive, were arrested in a pro-peace Friday night protest — led by Jewish activists — at Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza. The protesters, opposed to an Israeli invasion of Gaza, blocked traffic and also gathered at Schumer’s apartment building, which is two blocks from the plaza.
In a reflection of how the conflict is dividing local Democrats, three Democratic members of New York’s congressional delegation — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of the Bronx, Nydia Velázquez of Brooklyn and Jamaal Bowman of Yonkers — have signed on to a resolution supporting a ceasefire in Palestine, according to the office of Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri.
“I believe it is incumbent on the U.S. government to do all it can to prevent more civilian deaths,” Velázquez said in a statement. “Without a ceasefire, hundreds of thousands of lives are at imminent risk.”
On social media, Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Bronx Democrat, pushed back against support for a ceasefire, suggesting that few would expect the U.S. to enter a ceasefire with a “terrorist organization that committed all those atrocities against Americans on American soil.”
The White House has rejected calls for a ceasefire.
