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DETROIT NEWS: Dingell, Slotkin want answers amid heightened violence in Gaza

Escalating violence in Gaza has drawn sharp criticism from two Democratic Michigan congressional representatives who question whether the White House and State Department are doing enough to prevent starvation and the loss of innocent life.

Officials said Israeli forces on Thursday bombed the Holy Family Catholic Church, the only Catholic parish in Gaza, killing three and injuring 10, including Gabriel Romanelli, a priest who spoke daily with the late Pope Francis.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, on Friday called for the State Department to explain how it will prevent future attacks on places of worship and to clarify whether U.S. military aid to Israel is being used against civilians.

"… It is essential to clarify how the United States is monitoring and ensuring that military equipment supplied by the U.S. is not being used in ways that violate international humanitarian law, especially with regard to attacks on civilian or religious locations," Dingell said in a statement. "Transparency and accountability in this regard are vital to upholding human rights and international norms."

Israel expressed regret over what it described as an accident and said it was investigating.

President Donald Trump called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to express his frustration over the strike on the church, the White House said. Netanyahu later released a statement saying Israel “deeply regrets that a stray ammunition hit Gaza’s Holy Family Church.”

The deadly church bombing came after more than 60 Palestinians were killed earlier this week by Israeli airstrikes, including 17 who were in a marketplace in what Israel had designated a "safe zone," according to an Associated Press report.

The Israeli military said an initial assessment indicated that “fragments from a shell fired during operational activity in the area hit the church mistakenly.” It said it was still investigating.

The military said it only strikes militant targets, ”makes every feasible effort to mitigate harm to civilians and religious structures, and regrets any unintentional damage caused to them.”

In a social media post, U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly, said the dead were "simply seeking food and water for their families."

"If President Trump and his team truly want a lasting ceasefire (not to mention a Nobel Peace Prize), they need to extract basic humanitarian and law and order standards now," Slotkin said in a post on X.

Since beginning his second term, Trump has dismantled USAID, the agency responsible for foreign aid, citing wastefulness and preference for liberal causes. On Thursday, the State Department announced it destroyed 500 metric tons of emergency food aid that had expired, the AP reported.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization said an Israeli blockade of humanitarian aid that began in May has caused dozens of children to die of malnutrition and put the entire 2.1 million population of Gaza at risk of prolonged food shortages.

"I am concerned deaths like these are being exacerbated by a lack of medical resources and blood units," Dingell said. "In the last few months, little to no aid has entered the region due to Israel’s blockade. A ceasefire is critical not only to protect innocent lives but also to enable unimpeded humanitarian access and pave the way for long-term peace efforts in the region.”

In a Washington Post commentary, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, the largest denomination of Judaism in North America, said that while Hamas deserves the most blame for Palestinian suffering, Israel's coordinated effort to block aid is both "terribly flawed" and not "justified by Jewish values or humanitarian law."

The Westland-based American Federation of Ramallah Palestine said Palestinians are being systematically starved in violation of international law. The group called on the United Nations to "urgently intervene" to protect innocent Palestinians, and for Trump and Congress to halt military aid to Israel.

"We are watching a massacre in plain sight, and the world cannot remain silent," the AFRP said in a press release following the church bombing.

The Michigan legislators' comments marked a sharpening of their rhetoric regarding Israel's offensive in the Middle East.

Slotkin, who is Jewish and served three tours in Iraq as a Central Intelligence Agency analyst, has taken a measured stance on Israel. After U.S. forces launched strikes against Iranian nuclear sites last month in support of an Israeli campaign, she said she didn't want the U.S. "embroiled in another drawn-out conflict." Dingell said the U.S. needed to take steps to avoid "becoming entangled in another endless war in the Middle East."

Slotkin said Israel bears responsibility for ensuring aid is not impeded.

"Israel has the responsibility to allow humanitarian aid in, just as the U.S. had the responsibility to allow aid into places like Fallujah," Slotkin said. "And if President Trump’s hand-picked aid organization can’t get food and medicine to people in Gaza in a safe way, Israel has the responsibility to find one that can."