On September 29, 2026, the United States Senate voted 51–47 against advancing a resolution that would have required the State Department to report to Congress on the killings of American citizens in the occupied West Bank. The vote divided almost entirely along party lines, with two exceptions: Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky was the only Republican to vote in favor, and Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the only Democrat to vote against.
The outcome drew attention beyond the usual coverage of Senate floor votes, in part because one of the nine Americans whose deaths the resolution addressed was a nineteen-year-old born in Philadelphia, a constituent of the senator who cast the deciding Democratic vote against it.
What the resolution would have required:
The measure was introduced by Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, joined by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia. More than twenty additional senators signed on as cosponsors, including Tammy Baldwin, Richard Blumenthal, Chris Coons, Tammy Duckworth, Dick Durbin, Mazie Hirono, Ed Markey, Jeff Merkley, Chris Murphy, Patty Murray, Jack Reed, Brian Schatz, Jeanne Shaheen, Elizabeth Warren, Raphael Warnock, Peter Welch, Sheldon Whitehouse and Ron Wyden.
The resolution did not propose sanctions, suspend military aid, or direct any prosecution. It asked for two things. First, information and assessments regarding investigations into the killings of U.S. citizens by Israeli settlers or Israeli security forces in the West Bank. Second, an assessment of the broader human rights situation in the territory.
In other words, the measure sought a written report. Had it passed, the State Department would have been required to deliver that report to Congress within a set period.
The vote itself was procedural. Senators were voting on whether to discharge the resolution from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the step required to bring it to the floor for consideration. The 51–47 result meant the resolution remained in committee and did not advance.
How the vote broke down
According to Senator Van Hollen’s office, the resolution was supported by 46 Democrats and one Republican. That Republican was Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has previously broken with his party on questions of foreign military assistance and executive war powers.
Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat representing Pennsylvania, voted with the Republican majority against advancing the measure. He was the only member of the Democratic caucus to do so.
Fetterman has been among the most vocal supporters of Israel within the Senate Democratic caucus since the beginning of the war in Gaza, a position he has stated publicly and repeatedly over the past three years. He did not issue a public statement explaining this particular vote at the time it was taken, and reporting on the vote did not include comment from his office.
The nine Americans
The resolution concerned the deaths of nine United States citizens killed in the West Bank since 2022. Those deaths occurred in separate incidents involving, according to the families and to reporting on the cases, Israeli settlers or Israeli security forces.
Among the names associated with this set of cases is Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian American journalist for Al Jazeera who was shot and killed while covering an Israeli military raid in Jenin in May 2022. Abu Akleh was wearing a vest marked “PRESS” at the time she was killed. Her death prompted investigations by multiple news organizations and, eventually, an acknowledgment from the Israeli military that she was likely killed by Israeli fire, though no individual was charged.
Van Hollen’s office stated that none of the nine deaths has resulted in accountability or a completed, public investigation. In a statement issued after the vote, Van Hollen said that the families of those killed “and the American people, deserve answers on their deaths,” and added that “it is our responsibility to ensure recipients of U.S. taxpayer dollars act in line with our laws and our values.”
The Pennsylvania case
The most recent of the nine deaths involved Nasrallah Abu Siyam, a nineteen-year-old Palestinian American born in Philadelphia.
According to reports by 6abc Philadelphia and other local outlets, Abu Siyam was born in the city and spent his early childhood there before his family moved to the West Bank when he was a young boy. He was shot on February 18 in a West Bank village. His family says he was helping a neighbor protect goats at the time he was killed, and that the shooting was carried out by Israeli settlers.
His family has asked federal authorities to open a national investigation into the circumstances of his death. A cousin, Abdelhamid Siyam, told reporters that five other Palestinian Americans killed since February 2024 had not been investigated. The family has also said it is pursuing a civil case and has contacted lawmakers at the city, state and federal levels.
The case generated official responses in Pennsylvania before the Senate vote took place. Philadelphia City Council members Rue Landau and Nicholas O’Rourke introduced a resolution calling for transparency and accountability in the case. Landau said at the time that “when an American citizen is killed abroad, there must be accountability.”
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro sent a letter to the United States Department of Justice requesting an investigation, stating that the killing may have violated U.S. law.
Abu Siyam was a resident of Senator Fetterman’s state at the time of his birth and is counted among the nine Americans covered by the resolution.
Prior efforts on the same question
The September vote was not the first attempt by members of Congress to obtain information about these cases.
On March 5, 2026, Senator Van Hollen sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio seeking accountability for the deaths of U.S. citizens in the West Bank. That letter requested information on the status of investigations into the cases. The privileged resolution brought to the floor in September followed from that effort, using a procedural mechanism available to senators to force a floor vote on a request for State Department reporting.
Similar resolutions have been used in recent years by Senators Sanders and Van Hollen to compel human rights reporting related to U.S. security assistance. Those measures have generally failed to secure majority support.
What happens next
Because the Senate declined to discharge the resolution from committee, the State Department is under no new legal obligation to produce the report the measure described. Existing reporting requirements on human rights conditions, including the department’s annual country reports, remain in force.
Individual investigations into the deaths of U.S. citizens abroad remain the responsibility of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which have jurisdiction over certain crimes committed against American nationals overseas, and of the host government where the death occurred. Families in several of the nine cases have said publicly that they have not received information about the status of any such investigations.
Governor Shapiro’s request to the Justice Department in the Abu Siyam case remains outstanding as of this writing. The Abu Siyam family has said it intends to continue pressing for a federal inquiry and to pursue civil litigation.
The resolution may be reintroduced in a future session. Senators retain the ability to bring privileged resolutions of this type to the floor, and Van Hollen’s statement following the vote did not rule out further action.
