section_path: Foreign policy positions/Middle East: Israel and Palestine
section_name: Middle East: Israel and Palestine
paragraph_text: Middle East: Israel and Palestine
  
  After Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Gabbard came out strongly in support of Israel and condemned Hamas, calling it an Islamist terrorist organization. In November 2023, she attended the March for Israel at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
  
  She has called pro-Palestine protesters in the U.S. "puppets of a radical Islamist organization". Gabbard is opposed to a ceasefire in Gaza. In an interview uploaded to YouTube in February, she called Hamas a "threat that needs to be defeated militarily and ideologically". When asked what she thought about the U.S. supporting a U.N. resolution that seeks a ceasefire in Gaza, Gabbard said it needs to be approached strategically. "We have to be realists about the threat that continues to exist for the people of Israel. So as long as Hamas is in power, the people of Israel will not be secure and cannot live in peace."
  
  After Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Gabbard came out strongly in support of Israel and condemned Hamas, calling it an Islamist terrorist organization. In November 2023, she attended the March for Israel at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
  
  She has called pro-Palestine protesters in the U.S. "puppets of a radical Islamist organization". Gabbard is opposed to a ceasefire in Gaza. In an interview uploaded to YouTube in February, she called Hamas a "threat that needs to be defeated militarily and ideologically". When asked what she thought about the U.S. supporting a U.N. resolution that seeks a ceasefire in Gaza, Gabbard said it needs to be approached strategically. "We have to be realists about the threat that continues to exist for the people of Israel. So as long as Hamas is in power, the people of Israel will not be secure and cannot live in peace."