Senate Resolution on American Deaths in Israeli Custody and Operations Fails, 47-50

Senate Resolution 852 fell five votes short late Tuesday night, 47 to 50, with two senators not voting. The measure would have required the State Department to produce a human rights report on Israel under Section 502(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act, the statute that lets lawmakers demand such reports from countries receiving US assistance. Israel received $3.3 billion in US aid in 2025, more than any other recipient.

The vote broke almost entirely on party lines. Kentucky Republican Rand Paul was the lone member of his party to vote yes. Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman crossed over to vote no, joining 50 Republicans. Louisiana's Bill Cassidy and Alaska's Dan Sullivan, both Republicans, did not vote.

Maryland Democrat Chris Van Hollen introduced the resolution. According to his office, Israeli forces and settlers have killed nine American citizens in the occupied West Bank since 2022 and imprisoned three others, none of whose deaths have produced an independent accounting outside the Israeli military's own review process.

"They have received no justice and no accountability. Their families – and the American people – deserve answers on their deaths," Van Hollen said in a statement after the vote. "But today Republicans denied them that."

Three of the nine cases are documented. Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh was shot in the head while covering an Israeli raid in Jenin in 2022; Israeli and Palestinian investigators have disputed the ballistics findings. Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old American, was shot and killed by Israeli forces during a protest against settlement construction near Nablus in 2024. Sayfollah Musallet, who worked at an ice cream shop, was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in 2025. The remaining six cases were not detailed in Van Hollen's statement or the floor debate.

The failed vote marks a measurable shift from two years ago, when a comparable resolution introduced by Vermont independent Bernie Sanders drew only 11 votes. Van Hollen pointed to that gap as evidence of movement among Senate Democrats, telling the IMEU Policy Project last week that "growing recognition throughout the public" was "slowly filtering up" to Congress.

Last month, 45 Senate Democrats had already signed a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asking for his "personal and direct engagement and intervention" to protect their constituents, citing a surge in settler attacks on mosques and mass arrests in the West Bank. That letter asked Israel to complete its own investigations into the nine American deaths, not for an outside inquiry.

The Senate vote leaves the existing arrangement in place: Israeli authorities investigate Israeli conduct toward American citizens, and the US government continues to supply the aid that funds the forces involved. Israeli military and settler violence has killed more than 1,100 Palestinians in the West Bank over the same three-year period, according to the figures cited in Senate debate.