NORTHAMPTON — After passing a resolution in February calling for a cease-fire in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the city of Northampton will now consider whether to pass another resolution advocating for an arms embargo to Israel.

The resolution, recommended by Ward 4’s Jeremy Dubs, cites a joint resolution introduced to Congress by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders that would block the sale of more than $20 billion in offensive U.S. weaponry to Israel. If passed, Northampton would subsequently give official endorsement of the legislation, as well as urge Massachusetts Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey as well as Rep. Jim McGovern to vote in favor of it.

“It’s difficult to talk about, because it’s a very depressing, horrifying topic,” Dubs said during the council’s Oct. 17 meeting, when the resolution was first introduced. “Unfortunately, the situation hasn’t gotten any better since we passed that resolution.”

The arms embargo resolution cites figures from The Lancet, a British medical journal, that has estimated that more than 186,000 civilian lives may have been lost as a result of the war since its outbreak on Oct. 7. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, more than 43,000 Palestinians have died since the start of the war.

Since the February resolution in Northampton calling for a cease-fire, the war has continued to escalate, with Israeli troops having entered into southern Lebanon and the death the head of Lebanese Islamist group Hezbollah, as well as Israel and Iran trading rocket attacks in Jerusalem and Tehran.

At the Oct. 17 meeting, several residents and activists spoke in favor of the proposed resolution during the public comments period.

“I think that most of us in this room want to see an end to the killing in Gaza as well as a return of the hostages,” said Northampton resident Jenny Bender. “I urge councilors to move forward with an arms embargo to say that we in Northampton will not take part in giving [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu the weapons he needs to continue this war.”

Fellow Northampton resident Camden Segal also expressed support for the resolution, accusing Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza.

“Our federal representatives have largely demonstrated cowardice, refusing to speak out,” Segal said. “We must start at the local level.”

Several councilors also spoke favorably of the proposed resolution.

“The war has got to stop. Period,” said Ward 6’s Marianne LaBarge. “Every time you turn on the TV, the radio, there’s killings, more wars going on...we need to stop. We need to go ahead and really push our president to say get in there and stop it.”

Ward 7’s Rachel Maiore also appeared to favor the resolution, thanking Dubs for working on introducing the legislation. Maiore suggested that Israel may be in violation of the Leahy Law, which prohibits the United States from providing equipment to foreign military suspected of committing “gross human rights violations.”

“It breaks our policies as a country to be sending these arms when they [Israel] are breaking our policies around letting humanitarian supplies in,” Maiore said. “We’re not even going out on a limb here and asking for something that is beyond that.”

The council is scheduled to vote on the resolution at Thursday’s meeting.

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.