US senator calls for accountability over Israel’s killing of 9 Americans in occupied West Bank

US Senator Chris Van Hollen renewed his call for accountability for nine American citizens killed by Israel in the occupied West Bank since 2022. “I want to take a few minutes to tell my colleagues about these nine American citizens who’ve been killed by Israeli settlers or Israeli security forces in just over the last four years,” Van Hollen said in a Senate floor speech shared in a video on his X account. He named the dead as Omar Assad, 78; Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, 51; Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, 17; Mohammad Khdour, 17; Turkish-American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26; Amer Rabee, 14; Saif Musallet, 20; Khamis Ayyad, 40; and Nasrallah Abu Siyam, 19.

He said Israeli soldiers stopped Assad at a checkpoint in January 2022 and “dragged him from his car. They bound his hands behind his back. They gagged him. They blindfolded him, and they left him lying on the ground outside.” Assad “died of a stress-induced heart attack,” he said. Abu Akleh was shot in the head and killed by Israeli security forces near the Jenin refugee camp in May 2022. “When she was killed, she was wearing a bright blue vest, clearly identifying her as a journalist,” Van Hollen said.

Eygi, who was raised in Seattle, was “shot in the head by an Israeli soldier from approximately 200 meters” in September 2024, he said. He added that Rabee was “shot 11 times by two different weapons.” Van Hollen also cited US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who called Musallet’s killing “a criminal and terrorist act.” “He even said there must be accountability. So why has there been no accountability?” Van Hollen said. After each case, he repeated: “No one has been held accountable.”

“Nine American citizens dead. No accountability,” he said. Last month, the Senate voted 47-51 to block a resolution led by Van Hollen. It would have required the secretary of state to submit a report on Israel’s human rights practices within 30 days, including the killings of US citizens by Israeli forces or occupiers since January 2022 and the status of any investigations.