WASHINGTON — Representative Katherine Clark of Revere, the second-ranking House Democrat, referred to Israel’s war in Gaza as “genocide” on Thursday, according to a video clip from an event she held in Cambridge.

The comment makes her the highest-ranking congressional Democrat to use that historically significant term to refer to the worsening conflict.

“We each have to continue to have an open heart about how we do this, how we do it effectively, and how we take action in time to make a difference, whether that is stopping the starvation and genocide and destruction of Gaza, or whether that means we are working together to stop the redistricting that is going on, taking away the vote from people in order to retain power,” Clark said in a video clip posted on X Thursday night by the editor of The Grayzone, an independent news website.

The comments, first reported by Axios on Friday, came at an event Thursday afternoon by the Friends Committee on National Legislation, which bills itself as “a nonpartisan Quaker organization that lobbies Congress and the administration to advance peace, justice, and environmental stewardship.” Clark made the comments in a discussion hosted by Bridget Moix, the organization’s secretary general, at the Friends Meeting at Cambridge Meetinghouse.

Clark was responding to protestors at the event in her district, said Joy Lee, a spokesperson for her office, who denied that the comment amounted to a new position on the war.

“The Israeli and Palestinian people deserve security and peace. It can only be achieved through a permanent cease-fire, the immediate return of the remaining hostages, and a surge of humanitarian aid to Gaza,” Lee said. “It should not be controversial to say that Israeli children did not deserve to be kidnapped and murdered by Hamas, nor should it be controversial to say that Palestinian children, who bear no responsibility for Hamas’s atrocities, do not deserve to be killed by war or starvation.

But only a handful of congressional Democrats, and none in top leadership roles, have called the Gaza war a genocide despite mounting pressure from progressive activists as the situation there deteriorates.

The death toll in the war, which began after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, has exceeded 60,000 people, according to Gaza health officials. The United Nations has reported widespread starvation and evidence of famine in the war-torn country as the humanitarian crisis there has escalated this summer.

The UN defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” and there is a genocide case filed by South Africa against Israel pending at the International Court of Justice. Israel has denied it is committing genocide, arguing that it is in a war with Hamas provoked by the terrorist group’s 2023 attack, in which about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 250 people taken hostage. The term genocide weighs heavily over Israel’s history because of the Holocaust, a genocide in which Nazi Germany murdered six million Jews during World War II.

Jim Puzzanghera can be reached at jim.puzzanghera@globe.com. Follow him @JimPuzzanghera.