118 HRES 1537 IH: Condemning the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, and calling for Hamas and its leaders to immediately and unconditionally surrender and to release the hostages, including Americans.
U.S. House of Representatives
2024-10-08
text/xml
EN
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IV
118th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 1537
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
October 8, 2024
Mr. Gottheimer (for himself, Ms. Lois Frankel of Florida, Mr. Wilson of South Carolina, Mrs. Kim of California, Mr. Alford, Mr. Allred, Mr. Auchincloss, Mr. Bacon, Mr. Bean of Florida, Mrs. Beatty, Mr. Bera, Mr. Bishop of Georgia, Mr. Boyle of Pennsylvania, Ms. Brown, Ms. Brownley, Ms. Caraveo, Mr. Carter of Georgia, Mr. Case, Ms. Castor of Florida, Mrs. Chavez-DeRemer, Mrs. Cherfilus-McCormick, Mr. Ciscomani, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Costa, Ms. Craig, Mr. Crenshaw, Mr. Cuellar, Mr. D'Esposito, Mr. Davis of North Carolina, Mr. Deluzio, Mr. Dunn of Florida, Mr. Espaillat, Mr. Feenstra, Mr. Fitzpatrick, Mr. Fleischmann, Mrs. Fletcher, Mr. Flood, Mr. Gallego, Mr. Garbarino, Mr. Golden of Maine, Mr. Goldman of New York, Mr. Tony Gonzales of Texas, Mr. Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, Ms. Granger, Mr. Horsford, Ms. Houlahan, Mr. Hoyer, Ms. Hoyle of Oregon, Mr. Issa, Mr. Jackson of North Carolina, Mr. Jackson of Illinois, Mr. Johnson of South Dakota, Mr. Joyce of Ohio, Ms. Kaptur, Mr. Kean of New Jersey, Mr. Keating, Mrs. Kiggans of Virginia, Mr. Kim of New Jersey, Mr. Kustoff, Mr. LaHood, Mr. LaLota, Mr. Landsman, Mr. Latta, Mr. Lawler, Ms. Lee of Nevada, Mr. Lieu, Mr. Lucas, Mr. Magaziner, Ms. Malliotakis, Ms. Manning, Mr. McClintock, Mr. Menendez, Ms. Meng, Mr. Miller of Ohio, Mrs. Miller-Meeks, Mr. Molinaro, Mr. Moolenaar, Mr. Moore of Utah, Mr. Moskowitz, Mr. Moulton, Mr. Nickel, Mr. Norcross, Mr. Nunn of Iowa, Mr. Pallone, Mr. Panetta, Mr. Pappas, Mrs. Peltola, Mr. Pence, Mr. Peters, Ms. Perez, Ms. Pettersen, Mr. Pfluger, Mr. Phillips, Mr. Posey, Mr. Quigley, Mrs. Radewagen, Mr. Raskin, Mr. Rouzer, Mr. Rulli, Mr. Rutherford, Mr. Ryan, Ms. Salazar, Mr. Schiff, Mr. Schneider, Ms. Scholten, Ms. Schrier, Mr. David Scott of Georgia, Mr. Sherman, Ms. Sherrill, Ms. Slotkin, Mr. Sorensen, Mr. Soto, Ms. Spanberger, Mr. Stanton, Ms. Stefanik, Ms. Stevens, Ms. Strickland, Mr. Suozzi, Mr. Swalwell, Mrs. Sykes, Ms. Tenney, Mr. Thanedar, Mr. Thompson of Pennsylvania, Ms. Titus, Mrs. Torres of California, Mr. Torres of New York, Mr. Trone, Mr. Turner, Mr. Valadao, Mr. Van Drew, Mr. Vargas, Mr. Veasey, Mrs. Wagner, Mr. Waltz, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, Mr. Weber of Texas, Ms. Wild, Mr. Williams of New York, Ms. Williams of Georgia, Ms. Wilson of Florida, and Mr. Yakym) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
RESOLUTION
Condemning the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, and calling for Hamas and its leaders to immediately and unconditionally surrender and to release the hostages, including Americans.
Whereas Hamas is designated by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization, with a founding charter that calls for the destruction of the State of Israel and the mass murder of Jews;
Whereas, since its creation, Hamas terrorists have repeatedly attacked Israel, including through bombings, shootings, rocket attacks, and kidnappings;
Whereas Hamas has reignited multiple wars with Israel and has fired thousands of rockets directly at civilians in Israeli cities and towns;
Whereas Hamas uses civilian infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, and homes for their military operations, intentionally using civilians as human shields;
Whereas, on October 7, 2023, Hamas violated an existing cease-fire, and with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, other terrorist groups, and Gaza civilians infiltrated Israel, invaded Israeli towns, launched thousands of rockets into Israel, brutally murdered, raped, and burned alive more than 1,200 individuals, took 251 hostages, including Americans and citizens of more than 40 countries, and destroyed and looted entire communities;
Whereas 105 hostages were released in a negotiated hostage deal in November 2023, following mediation efforts led by the United States;
Whereas Hamas killed more than 40 Americans on and after October 7, including murdering Hersh Goldberg-Polin who spent more than 300 days in captivity as a hostage;
Whereas Hamas still holds 7 American hostages: Edan Alexander, Itay Chen, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Gadi Haggai, Judith Weinstein Haggai, Omer Neutra, and Keith Siegel;
Whereas Hamas refuses to allow humanitarian organizations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit and provide medical care to the hostages;
Whereas Hamas committed brutal acts of sexual violence, including gang rape and sexual mutilation, and Israeli officials have gathered eyewitness testimony, video recordings, and forensic evidence proving these atrocities;
Whereas released hostages have bravely come forward and confirmed they were victims of sexual assault and witnessed the sexual abuse of fellow hostages while in captivity;
Whereas, in March 2024, 5 months after October 7, the United Nation’s Special Representative of the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict and her team found “clear and convincing information that sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment has been committed against hostages”;
Whereas a senior Hamas official openly promised a “second, third, fourth” October 7-style attack against Israel;
Whereas, even today, Hamas continues to fire rockets, including from within designated humanitarian zones, into Israel and uses civilians as human shields;
Whereas Israel, like other sovereign states, has a right to defend herself from terrorist organizations and others who seek its destruction and annihilation, such as Iranian-backed proxies, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and militias in Iraq and Syria;
Whereas, since October 7, these Iranian proxy groups have fired thousands of rockets, mortars, antitank missiles, and explosive UAVs into Israel, and have attacked American and other allied servicemembers, bases, and ships in the Middle East region;
Whereas, since October 8, Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets into northern Israel and forced the mass displacement of Israeli civilians from the country’s north;
Whereas, on April 13, Iran launched over 300 missiles and drones at Israel, the first ever direct attack against Israel launched from Iranian soil;
Whereas the Administration worked with regional partners to counter Iran’s attack, and the Administration has deployed military assets to the region to deter further aggression from Tehran and its regional proxies;
Whereas Congress passed and the United States Administration signed into law a supplemental aid package that provides crucial military resources and humanitarian aid; and
Whereas, in the aftermath of Hamas October 7 terrorist attacks, there has been a worldwide surge in antisemitism, impacting Jewish communities globally, including rising physical assaults, vandalism, and harassment targeting Jews: Now, therefore, be it
That the House of Representatives—
(1)
condemns the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7, the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust, and those that continue to be perpetrated by the terrorist organization, including the use of sexual violence as a tool of war;
(2)
calls for Hamas to immediately surrender, cease its attacks against Israel, and release all remaining hostages;
(3)
reaffirms Israel’s right to self-defense from threats and terrorist organizations that seek her destruction;
(4)
commits to ensuring that humanitarian aid reaches Palestinian noncombatants;
(5)
urges international organizations, like the United Nations and all nations across the globe, to unequivocally denounce this attack and the ongoing atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists and call for the immediate release of the hostages; and
(6)
strongly condemns and denounces all instances of antisemitism globally, domestically, including on college campuses and commits to confronting and combating this hatred in all its forms and at every level.