Since 2022, nine American citizens have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers or Israeli settlers. They have received "no justice and no accountability," in the words of the senator who tried to get answers.
On September 29, the U.S. Senate had a chance to ask one simple question: What happened to them?
Republicans said no. The vote, on pulling the question out of committee so the Senate could vote on it, failed 47 to 51. Fifty Republicans voted no, joined by one Democrat, John Fetterman. Only one Republican, Rand Paul, voted yes.
Who were the nine Americans?
They were people with American passports, and our government is supposed to protect them. Here are four of their stories, as The New American reported them:
- Omar Assad was 78 years old. In January 2022, Israeli soldiers stopped him at a checkpoint, dragged him from his car, and tied him up and gagged him. He died of a heart attack.
- Shireen Abu Akleh was a well-known reporter. In May 2022, she was shot in the head by Israeli forces. She was wearing a vest that said she was a journalist.
- Sayfollah Kamel Musallet was 20. In July 2025, Israeli settlers beat him to death. The ambulance was blocked from reaching him for more than two hours.
- Khamis Ayyad was 40. In August 2025, settlers set fires during an attack on his village. He died from the smoke.
The other five were Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, Mohammad Khdour, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, Amer Rabee and Nasrallah Muhammad Jamal Abu Siyam. All nine are named in the resolution.
What the vote would have done
The plan was called S.Res. 852, and it came from Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. It would not have cut off a single dollar or a single weapon. It only asked for information.
There is an old law that says when a country gets weapons and military aid from the United States, Congress can ask the State Department for a report on how that country treats people. This plan asked for that report. It wanted to know what had been done to investigate the nine killings, and how people's rights are being treated in the West Bank.
Under that law, the State Department would have had 30 days to answer. If it gave no answer, U.S. military aid to Israel would stop. In other words, the only way aid would stop is if the Trump administration refused to answer a question about dead Americans.
"The U.S. Government – including this Administration – has said time and again that our number one priority abroad is ensuring the safety and security of American citizens," Van Hollen said after the vote. Yet these nine Americans "have received no justice and no accountability."
What Republicans said
Republican Sen. Steve Daines called the plan "misguided". He said the real goal was to cut off security assistance to Israel.
But that only happens if nobody answers. Asking how Americans died is not an attack on anyone. It is the government's job. If a Republican senator thinks the answer would be fine, the easy move is to ask and let the report show it. Voting not to ask at all tells you they're afraid of what the answer might be.
The Republicans on this site who voted no
All 14 of these senators voted no:
- Alabama — Tommy Tuberville
- Arkansas — Tom Cotton, who wrote a bill ordering the president to share more U.S. spy information with Israel and making it harder to ever stop
- Florida — Ashley Moody
- Idaho — Jim Risch, who runs the Senate committee in charge of foreign affairs
- Kansas — Roger Marshall
- Maine — Susan Collins
- Mississippi — Cindy Hyde-Smith
- Nebraska — Pete Ricketts
- Ohio — Jon Husted
- South Carolina — Darline Graham
- South Dakota — Mike Rounds
- Tennessee — Bill Hagerty and Marsha Blackburn
- West Virginia — Shelley Moore Capito
Each of them works for the people of the United States. Nine of those people are dead, and these senators decided they didn't even want a report.
