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119th CONGRESS
1st Session |
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.
Mr. Gottheimer (for himself, Ms. Lois Frankel of Florida, Mr. Wilson of South Carolina, Mrs. Kim, Mrs. Beatty, Ms. Tenney, Mr. Vargas, Mr. Boyle of Pennsylvania, Mr. Panetta, Mr. David Scott of Georgia, Ms. Stevens, Ms. Pettersen, Mr. Hoyer, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, Mr. Conaway, Mr. Sherman, Ms. Gillen, Mr. Latimer, Mr. Bacon, Ms. Lee of Nevada, Ms. Budzinski, Mr. Suozzi, Mr. Stanton, Mrs. Miller-Meeks, Mr. Lieu, Mr. Auchincloss, Ms. Williams of Georgia, Mr. Landsman, Ms. Brown, Mr. Pallone, Mrs. Sykes, Mr. Moskowitz, Mr. Cuellar, Mr. Ryan, Mr. Costa, Ms. Brownley, Mr. Soto, Ms. Craig, Mr. Kean, Mr. Fitzpatrick, Mr. LaLota, Mr. Yakym, Mr. Joyce of Ohio, Ms. Sherrill, Mr. Magaziner, Mr. Vindman, Mrs. McClain Delaney, Mr. Ciscomani, Mr. Lawler, Mr. Torres of New York, Mr. Cohen, Ms. Schrier, Ms. Meng, Mr. Moolenaar, Mr. Bishop, Mr. Norcross, Mr. Garbarino, Mr. Schneider, Mrs. Torres of California, Mr. Goldman of New York, Mrs. Fletcher, Mr. Figures, Mr. Horsford, Mr. Case, Mr. Levin, and Mr. Menendez) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
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, on October 7, Hamas committed brutal acts of sexual violence, including gang rape and sexual mutilation, and 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;
Whereas, since October 7, Iranian proxy groups have fired thousands of rockets, mortars, antitank missiles, and explosive unmanned aerial vehicles into Israel, and have attacked American and other allied servicemembers, bases, and ships in the middle east region;
Whereas, since October 8, 2023, Hezbollah fired thousands of rockets into northern Israel and forced the mass displacement of Israeli civilians from the country’s north;
Whereas, on April 13, 2024, Iran launched over 300 missiles and drones at Israel, the first ever direct attack against Israel launched from Iranian soil;
Whereas the military of the United States worked with regional partners to counter Iran’s attack, and both the Biden and Trump administrations have deployed military assets to the region to deter further aggression from Tehran and its regional proxies;
Whereas, on October 16, 2024, Israeli forces killed Hamas leader and the chief planner of the October 7 attacks, Yahya Sinwar during fighting in Rafah, Gaza;
Whereas, in November 2024, following intense fighting that significantly diminished Hezbollah’s operational strength, Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a cease-fire and the Lebanese Armed Forces began disarming Hezbollah forces in Southern Lebanon;
Whereas, in June 2025, Israel launched a military operation to degrade Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, leading to multiple reciprocal attacks across Israel and Iran, including strikes on Tehran and Tel Aviv;
Whereas, on June 22, 2025, United States forces conducted strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, setting back Iran’s nuclear program;
Whereas, on June 24, 2025, Israel and Iran agreed to a cease-fire agreement, mediated by the United States, ending direct hostilities;
Whereas the United States Government and regional partners have worked to end hostilities in the region and return all the hostages;
Whereas 105 hostages were released in a negotiated hostage deal in November 2023, following mediation efforts led by the United States;
Whereas further negotiations led to an additional 3-month cease-fire starting on January 25, 2025, where 34 hostages were released, including Americans Keith Siegel and Sagui Dekel-Chen, and hostages determined to have been murdered in captivity, including 4-year-old Ariel Bibas, 9-month-old Kfir Bibas, and their mother Shiri Bibas;
Whereas additional efforts led by the Biden and Trump administrations resulted in the release of American Edan Alexander in May 2025;
Whereas, in June 2025, Israeli forces recovered the bodies of Gadi Haggai and Judith Weinstein Haggai, who were murdered on October 7, 2023, at Kibbutz Nir Oz and whose bodies had been held in hostage since the start of the conflict;
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 48 hostages, including 2 Americans: Itay Chen and Omer Neutra;
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 the United States and regional partners have provided humanitarian aid to civilians through various mechanisms to keep assistance out of the hands of Hamas;
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;
Whereas, on November 7, 2024, hundreds of Jewish soccer supporters were attacked in Amsterdam by masked mobs in a coordinated attack;
Whereas, on May 21, 2025, 2 individuals who worked at the Israeli Embassy, American Sarah Milgrim and German-Israeli Yaron Lischinsky, were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, by alleged attacker Elias Rodriguez, who witnesses noted after the shooting held up a keffiyeh and said, “I did this for Gaza, free Palestine” and further as the suspect was taken into custody, shouted “free, free Palestine”;
Whereas, on June 1, 2025, alleged attacker Mohamed Sabry Soliman threw 2 lit Molotov cocktails at individuals participating in a peaceful gathering in Boulder, Colorado, calling attention to the hostages held in Gaza; and
Whereas the attack resulted in 15 individuals being injured, and the death of Karen Diamond, who died of severe injuries that she suffered in the attack: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, 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 vital humanitarian aid reaches Palestinian noncombatants;
(5) urges international organizations, like the United Nations and all nations across the globe, to unequivocally denounce 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 in K–12 schools and on college campuses and commits to confronting and combating this hatred in all its forms and at every level.