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WASHINGTON, US - MARCH 22, 2024: A group of protesters took to Capitol Hill Friday to tell House lawmakers that their decision to pass a sweeping spending bill that includes a halt to all US funding for the UN's Palestine refugee agency is "heartless." "It's an example of how cruel, brutal, heartless this Congress is, and how much they will go to any length to support Israel in wiping out the people of Gaza," Medea Benjamin, an activist who founded the Code Pink protest group, told Anadolu as demonstrators sought to press lawmakers on the aid cut as they made their way to the Capitol to cast their votes. "It is so heartless. At this moment, when people are actually starving, starving, we can see it on our TV screens. They're starving. And yet, this Congress decides that this is the moment to ban money going to the only agency that everybody agrees has the distribution ability to get food out to people who need it," she added. The US House of Representatives passed 286-134 Friday a massive $1.2 trillion spending bill to fund much of the federal government for another six months. It will now be taken up in the Senate where it is all but certain to be rapidly approved ahead of a midnight deadline to avert another government shutdown. Within the bill's 1,012 pages is a prohibition on any US funding for the UN's Palestine refugee agency (UNRWA) until March 2025. Meanwhile, the bill allocates $4 billion in military aid for Israel, including $80 million for the procurement of the Iron Dome missile defense system. (Footage by Mostafa Bassim /Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)