US Senate blocks resolution seeking report on Americans killed in West Bank

The resolution cites a ‘lack of accountability’ by Israel’s government and an ‘inability to secure justice’ by the US.

Lebanese and Palestinian activists carry posters of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh during a protest against her killing in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, on May 12, 2022 [Wael Hamzah/ EPA]

The United States Senate has blocked a resolution that would have required President Donald Trump’s administration to report on the killing of nine Americans in the occupied West Bank and on Israel’s treatment of Palestinian children in military detention.

The resolution failed 47-53 on Tuesday, with senators voting largely along party lines.

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It was brought to the floor by Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland, and cited a “lack of accountability” from the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and an “inability to secure justice” from the US government.

Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the only Democrat to vote against advancing the resolution, while Senator Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, joined Democrats in supporting it.

Van Hollen forced the vote under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, which allows individual members of Congress to demand a formal State Department report on the human rights practices of any country that receives US security assistance.

“Violence is raging in the West Bank, & despite the deaths of nine Americans, the wrongful detention of even more, & the daily torment of Palestinians, we have no accountability from the U.S. or Israeli govt”, Van Hollen wrote on X before the resolution was brought to a vote.

Nine Americans killed

The resolution called for an unclassified report within 30 days of adoption. It would have detailed investigations into the deaths of the Americans, the treatment of US citizens held in Israeli prisons, and the conditions facing Palestinian children in Israeli military detention.

The measure cited the deaths of nine American citizens in the occupied West Bank since January 2022, including Shireen Abu Akleh , a Palestinian-American journalist and Al Jazeera correspondent who was shot in the head and killed in May 2022 while reporting in the city of Jenin.

It also included Aysenur Ezgi Eygi , who was shot in the head and killed by an Israeli soldier in September 2024, and Sayfollah Kamel Musallet, who was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in July 2025.

The others were Amer Mohammad Saada Rabee, who was 14; Tawfic Abdel Jabbar and Mohamed Ahmad Alkhdour, both 17; Omar Assad; Khamid Ayyad; Nasrallah Abu Siyam; and Khamis Rabee Jabara.

The resolution also noted the arrests of several Palestinian-American children by Israeli forces.

Among them was Mohammed Ibrahim, a 16-year-old from Florida, who was arrested in February 2025 and held in pretrial detention for nine months without contact with his family. It noted that US embassy officials and lawyers who met him told his family that he had lost nearly a quarter of his body weight, contracted scabies, and was beaten and tortured.

Other Palestinian Americans who remain in custody include Adam Wajeh Abdelfattah Karakrah, 16, and Sama Safi, 20, a student detained in June in raids targeting students at Birzeit University.

The resolution cited rights groups that have documented the deaths of at least 44 Palestinians in Israeli military camps since the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023. Those groups, it said, have documented widespread abuses, including beatings, sexual violence, harassment and threats, “pointing to systemic and deliberate mistreatment”.

It also went on to note a sharp escalation in Israeli settler pogroms in the occupied West Bank, and stressed that there have been no convictions for the killings of Palestinian civilians by Israeli settlers since 2020.

该决议指出以色列政府“缺乏问责制”，而美国“无力伸张正义”。

2022年5月12日，黎巴嫩和巴勒斯坦活动人士在黎巴嫩贝鲁特市中心举行抗议活动，悼念遇害的记者希琳·阿布·阿克勒，他们举着希琳的海报。[Wael Hamzah/ EPA]

美国参议院否决了一项决议，该决议要求唐纳德·特朗普总统的政府就九名美国人在被占领的西岸被杀害以及以色列在军事拘留中对待巴勒斯坦儿童的情况提交报告。

该决议周二以 47 比 53 的投票结果被否决，参议员们的投票基本按照党派路线进行。

英国承诺对以色列在加沙和西岸的行动采取更强硬立场（共4项，此为第1项）

摩洛哥亲巴勒斯坦抗议活动挑战拉巴特与以色列日益加深的关系（共4项，此为第2项）

巴勒斯坦周刊（共4篇报道，此为第3篇）：以色列政客在选举前竞相展现强硬形象

名单4/4：阿齐兹·沙伊尔无视制裁，继续缅怀遇难的巴勒斯坦人

该议案由马里兰州民主党参议员克里斯·范霍伦提出，其中提到以色列总理本雅明·内塔尼亚胡的政府“缺乏问责制”，以及美国政府“无法伸张正义”。

宾夕法尼亚州参议员约翰·费特曼是唯一一位投票反对推进该决议的民主党人，而肯塔基州共和党参议员兰德·保罗则与民主党人一起支持该决议。

范霍伦依据 1961 年《对外援助法》强制进行了投票，该法允许国会议员要求国务院就任何接受美国安全援助的国家的人权状况提交正式报告。

“西岸暴力事件频发，尽管有九名美国人丧生，更多人被错误拘留，巴勒斯坦人每天都遭受折磨，但我们却得不到美国或以色列政府的任何问责”，范·霍伦在决议提交表决前在 X 上写道。

九名美​​国人遇难

该决议要求在通过后30天内提交一份非机密报告。报告将详细调查美国人的死亡事件、被关押在以色列监狱的美国公民所受到的待遇，以及巴勒斯坦儿童在以色列军事拘留所面临的状况。

该措施列举了自 2022 年 1 月以来在被占领的西岸地区丧生的九名美国公民，其中包括巴勒斯坦裔美国记者、半岛电视台通讯员希琳·阿布·阿克勒，她于 2022 年 5 月在杰宁市报道时头部中弹身亡。

其中包括艾森努尔·埃兹吉·埃吉（Aysenur Ezgi Eygi），他于 2024 年 9 月被一名以色列士兵击中头部身亡；以及赛福拉·卡梅尔·穆萨莱特（Sayfollah Kamel Musallet），他于 2025 年 7 月被以色列定居者殴打致死。

其他人是 14 岁的 Amer Mohammad Saada Rabee； Tawfic Abdel Jabbar 和 Mohamed Ahmad Alkdour，均为 17 岁；奥马尔·阿萨德；哈米德·艾亚德；纳斯拉拉·阿布·西亚姆；和卡米斯·拉比·贾巴拉。

该决议还提到以色列军队逮捕了几名巴勒斯坦裔美国儿童。

其中包括来自佛罗里达州的16岁少年穆罕默德·易卜拉欣。他于2025年2月被捕，并在审前拘留期间被关押了九个月，期间无法与家人联系。报告指出，与他会面的美国大使馆官员和律师告诉他的家人，他体重减轻了近四分之一，患上了疥疮，并且遭受了殴打和酷刑。

其他仍被拘留的巴勒斯坦裔美国人包括 16 岁的 Adam Wajeh Abdelfattah Karakrah 和 20 岁的 Sama Safi，后者是一名学生，于 6 月份在针对比尔宰特大学学生的突袭行动中被拘留。

该决议援引人权组织的数据，称自2023年10月7日哈马斯领导的袭击以来，至少有44名巴勒斯坦人在以色列军事营地中死亡。决议称，这些组织记录了广泛的虐待行为，包括殴打、性暴力、骚扰和威胁，“表明存在系统性和蓄意的虐待”。

报告还指出，以色列定居者在被占领的西岸地区对巴勒斯坦平民的迫害急剧升级，并强调自 2020 年以来，以色列定居者杀害巴勒斯坦平民的案件没有一起被定罪。