Van Hollen presses for justice over nine Americans killed

Chris Van Hollen, a US senator, is pressing again for answers about nine Americans killed since 2022 in the occupied West Bank.

He spoke on the Senate floor and shared the speech in a video on X. “Nine American citizens dead. No accountability,” he said.

Van Hollen named the victims

The victims included Omar Assad, 78, and the journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, 51. Two 17-year-olds, Tawfic Abdel Jabbar and Mohammad Khdour, also died, along with Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, and Amer Rabee, 14. Saif Musallet was 20 when he died, and Khamis Ayyad was 40. Nasrallah Abu Siyam, the ninth victim, was 19.

He said Israeli settlers or Israeli security forces killed them within roughly four years. Because he wanted the point to land, he repeated after each case that nobody faced accountability.

In January 2022, according to Van Hollen, soldiers halted Assad at a checkpoint. They pulled him from his car, tied his hands, gagged and blindfolded him, and left him lying outside. Assad later died of a stress-induced heart attack.

Abu Akleh died in May 2022 after Israeli forces shot her in the head near the Jenin refugee camp. She wore a bright blue vest that marked her as a journalist, Van Hollen noted.

Cases cited by Van Hollen

Eygi grew up in Seattle. In September 2024, he said, an Israeli soldier shot her in the head from about 200 metres, during a protest near Nablus against the building of illegal settlements. He added that two different weapons fired 11 shots at Rabee.

Meanwhile, Van Hollen also quoted US Ambassador Mike Huckabee, who called the killing of Musallet “a criminal and terrorist act.” Settlers beat Musallet, who worked in an ice cream shop, to death in 2025.

“He even said there must be accountability. So why has there been no accountability?” Van Hollen asked.

The failed Senate resolution

The speech follows a setback last month. The Senate voted 47 to 51 to block a resolution that Van Hollen led. That measure demanded a State Department report within 30 days. It would have covered Israel’s human rights practices, including deaths of US citizens at the hands of Israeli forces or settlers since January 2022, plus the state of investigations.

Van Hollen introduced the measure under Section 502(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act. Lawmakers can use that law to ask for rights reports on aid recipients. Also, no country gets more US foreign aid than Israel, which took in $3.3 billion in 2025.

Rand Paul was the lone Republican to support the resolution. Democrat John Fetterman voted against it, and two Republicans did not vote. After the vote, Van Hollen said the families “deserve answers” and that Republicans denied them that.

Growing pressure in Congress

Also last month, 45 Democratic senators wrote to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They urged his “personal and direct engagement” to protect their constituents, and they asked him to set up a credible way to investigate violations of law.

They asked Israel to complete its own inquiries into the nine deaths. However, Washington has never pushed for independent investigations beyond the Israeli military’s reach.

Van Hollen told a policy group that public recognition of these abuses is slowly reaching Congress, so he sees a chance to act. He said the lack of justice for Americans can help shine a light on abuses that Palestinian children and others face every day.

Over three years, Israeli military and settler attacks in the occupied West Bank have killed over 1,100 Palestinians. For now, Van Hollen says the nine families still wait for answers.