Senators write: “It is unclear to us how many more Americans must die in the West Bank in order for this administration, and other administrations, to take serious, credible steps to secure accountability and ensure an end to the ongoing killings of Americans without consequence”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, joined U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and 29 Senate colleagues in pressing the Trump Administration for accountability and an investigations into the death of Nasrallah Abu Siyam, an American citizen who was shot and killed in the West Bank by violent Israeli settlers. Nasrallah is the ninth American citizen who has been killed in the West Bank since January 2022—to date, no one has been held responsible for the deaths of any of these Americans.
“In the wake of the killing of another U.S. citizen in the West Bank, the ninth since January 2022, we write with grave concern regarding the ongoing lack of accountability for the deaths of Americans in the West Bank. On February 18th, Nasrallah Abu Siyam was shot and killed in the West Bank village of Mukhmas, near Ramallah, by violent Israeli settlers during an attack on Palestinian farmers. This is yet another example of the impunity afforded to extremist Israeli settlers in the West Bank under the protection of the Israel Defense Forces. The U.S. government must conduct a credible and independent investigation into Nasrallah’s killing and hold all perpetrators accountable,” the Senators write.
“Unfortunately, this is the second letter we’ve written to this administration in the last seven months about the killing of an American citizen in the West Bank. […] In response to our letter, the State Department wrote ‘The United States calls for accountability in all cases where U.S. citizens are harmed abroad to help prevent future tragedies.’ It’s clear that these ‘calls’ and whatever efforts were made, if any, to secure accountability, failed. This has now become a consistent pattern in which Americans are being killed in the West Bank by settlers or the IDF without justice or accountability, despite promises from U.S. officials,” the Senators continue.
The Senators note: “Nasrallah Abu Siyam, a 19-year-old American born in Philadelphia, has become the ninth American killed in the West Bank since January 2022. Along with Saifullah Musallet and Khamis Ayyada, a forty-year-old American citizen and father of five who died of smoke inhalation in August after a fire was set by Israeli settlers in his West Bank village of Silwad, Abu Siyam is now the third American killed in the West Bank during the second Trump administration.”
“For all nine of these killings, no one has yet been held accountable by the Netanyahu government, nor has the U.S. government upheld its duty to protect Americans and secure justice and accountability for their deaths. It is unclear to us how many more Americans must die in the West Bank in order for this administration, and other administrations, to take serious, credible steps to secure accountability and ensure an end to the ongoing killings of Americans without consequence,” the Senators continue.
The Senators conclude: “We urge you to launch an independent investigation into the killing of Nasrallah Abu Siyam and provide an update on the status of investigations into the killings of all the other Americans killed in the West Bank since January 2022. We expect a briefing on this information by April 5, 2026.”
In addition to Senators Welch and Van Hollen, the letter was signed by Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Rev. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), and Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.).
Read and download the Senators’ full letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.
###