[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 165 (Tuesday, October 7, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S6962]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Israel

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, well, unfortunately, it is a sad day. 
Today marks 2 years since Hamas's horrific, brutal, terrorist attack on 
Israel--a day of inextinguishable grief, the single deadliest day for 
Jews since the Holocaust. No matter how much time passes, I will always 
remember October 7 as if it were yesterday.
  On October 7, I was in Beijing, leading a bipartisan delegation in 
China, meeting with President Xi about opening up Chinese markets to 
U.S. companies, when I first learned of the attack. I will never forget 
the story. The Israeli Ambassador to China came and told me what 
happened in Israel and talked about what happened at the Kibbutz 
Be'eri, where Hamas gathered children, grandparents, mothers, and 
babies into one community center and gunned them all down.
  It reminded me of the story of my grandmother in Chortkiv, in western 
Ukraine, in 1941, when the Nazis came to her home and asked her to 
gather her greater family on the porch. About 35 people gathered, from 
ages 80 to 3 months.
  The Nazis said: You are coming with us.
  She said: We are not moving.
  They gunned them all down--machine-gunned them all down. So the story 
of Be'eri was eerily reminiscent.
  After hearing of the attack, I cut my trip to China short, as 
important as it was, and got on a plane to Israel as soon as I could. I 
told the Israeli people, during these troubled times, that the American 
people were with them.
  What I saw in Israel, in the aftermath of the attack, shook me to my 
core. I met with families whose loved ones were killed, injured, and a 
woman telling us she was waving good-bye to her son, 12 years old, who 
was kidnapped and on a motorcycle with a Hamas thug. I will never 
forget those meetings. There wasn't a dry eye in the house.
  The world must never--never--forget the horrors that Hamas inflicted 
on them that day. The brutality and viciousness of Hamas's attacks--
indiscriminate violence against innocent infants, young people at a 
concert, women, the elderly; sexual violence--taking hundreds of 
hostages, will remain ever present in my mind and in the minds of the 
conscience of the world.
  Today, we remember the victims of the October 7 attacks--may their 
memories be a blessing--and we reaffirm our commitment to finally bring 
home all the hostages still held so cruelly by Hamas, vicious 
organization that it is.
  Two years later, 48 hostages remain in Hamas's captivity, including 
the remains of two New Yorkers, Omer Neutra and Itay Chen. Every day 
that these hostages remain in captivity, every day their families are 
denied full closure and burial of their loved ones is a day too long. 
We remain committed to bringing the hostages home as soon as possible.
  At this crucial moment in negotiations, the Trump administration and 
all those at the table and the international community must do 
everything--everything--to finally secure a cease-fire and hostage 
agreement to end the war in Gaza and to bring the hostages held by 
Hamas home, and to surge desperately needed humanitarian relief to 
innocent Palestinians facing heartbreaking levels of hunger and 
devastation in Gaza, and, finally, to build an enduring and lasting 
peace.
  It is imperative that all parties involved do everything possible to 
secure this desperately needed agreement.