The US Senate on Tuesday evening rejected along mostly party lines a Democratic resolution that would have forced the state department to report to Congress on violence in the occupied West Bank, including the killings of nine American citizens by Israeli settlers or security forces over the last few years.
The resolution, led by the Maryland Democrat Chris Van Hollen, would have given the state department ۳۰ days to report to Congress on those deaths and on wider human rights conditions in the territory, including Israel’s detention of Palestinian children.
The resolution failed to advance by a vote of ۴۷ to ۵۱. Pennsylvania senator John Fetterman, a Democrat, joined Republicans in voting against the resolution, while Kentucky Republican Rand Paul voted in favor.
Van Hollen was able to force the vote under section ۵۰۲B of the Foreign Assistance Act, a law that lets senators demand human rights reports on countries receiving US military aid. The measure drew ۲۴ Democratic sponsors, including Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Tim Kaine of Virginia and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the foreign relations committee.
“While I was pleased that so many of my Democratic colleagues joined this effort, it’s clear the United States must do more,” Van Hollen said in a statement after the vote. “It is our responsibility to ensure recipients of US taxpayer dollars act in line with our laws and our values – this resolution was an opportunity to shed light on a reality that flies in the face of that principle.”
Nine Americans have been killed in the occupied West Bank since ۲۰۲۲, and the senators say none of the cases has resulted in accountability. The most recent include Sayfollah Musallet, a ۲۰-year-old from Tampa, Florida, who was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in July ۲۰۲۵ while visiting family in the village of Sinjil. His family said the settlers surrounded him for more than three hours and blocked an ambulance from reaching him as he tried to protect their land. Weeks later, Khamis Ayyad, a ۴۰-year-old father of five from Cicero, Illinois, died of smoke inhalation after settlers set fire to cars and homes in the village of Silwad.
Two other Americans, both ۱۷, Tawfic Abdel Jabbar and Mohammad Khdour, were shot dead in separate incidents in early ۲۰۲۴. Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, a ۲۶-year-old raised in Seattle, was shot in the head by Israeli troops, and Amer Rabee, a ۱۴-year-old from New Jersey, was shot ۱۱ times, according to Van Hollen.
The victim list also includes the journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, killed in ۲۰۲۲, and Omar Assad, an elderly man who died after Israeli soldiers bound and gagged him.
Van Hollen said none of the cases has ended in accountability, from either the Israeli or US government, and he places the blame largely on Republican senators who continue to vote against it.
“If the killing of nine Americans does not justify a report from our own state department, I would ask my colleagues: what would?” the Maryland Democrat said in a floor speech. “How many more Americans must be killed before the executive branch does its job? These families deserve answers.”
In August, ۴۵ Democratic senators signed a letter to Benjamin Netanyahu urging him to act to protect Americans in the West Bank.
The vote comes amid what human rights groups describe as rising settler violence. Human Rights Watch in August reported that settler attacks, together with a rapid expansion of settlements, had fully or partly displaced ۱۰۷ Palestinian communities, about ۵,۹۰۰ people, since January ۲۰۲۳. The group cited UN figures showing more Palestinians were displaced in the first four months of ۲۰۲۶ than in all of ۲۰۲۵.
A UN report from March covering the ۱۲ months up to October ۲۰۲۵ documented ۱,۷۳۲ settler attacks causing injuries or property damage, and determined that Israel’s settlement expansion had forced more than ۳۶,۰۰۰ Palestinians from their homes.
Many of the Democrats, who have historically been lockstep with Israel, have now shifted over the last few years.
When Sanders first forced a Senate vote on blocking arms sales to Israel in November ۲۰۲۴, ۱۸ senators backed him. Then, in April this year, ۴۰ of the ۴۷ Democrats voted to block a $۲۹۵m sale of bulldozers to Israel, which Sanders argued would be used to demolish homes in the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon. Another ۳۶ voted to block a $۱۵۲m sale of ۱,۰۰۰-pound bombs.
The measures failed because every Republican voted against it.
