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On October 7, 2023, my son Itay was nineteen, an American-Israeli soldier stationed at Nahal Oz protecting the border, when Hamas terrorists kidnapped and murdered him. They held his remains in Gaza for 760 days — deliberate, unimaginable psychological warfare against my family — before he was finally returned home in November 2025, the last American hostage. He was my son. He was an American. Most of his own country never learned his name, or the names of Judy Weinstein, Danielle Waldman or Carol Siman Tov.
That is why it was so meaningful that the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bipartisan resolution, led by Senators Rick Scott and Jacky Rosen, honoring the 46 Americans murdered by Hamas during the October 7 war. For the first time, their names are written into the official record of the United States Senate. The resolution reaffirms America’s commitment to seek legal justice on behalf of our families, and it will be delivered to each of us by the Secretary of State.
Washington is finally stopping to remember. Families of the fallen will soon gather in the nation’s capital for “Honoring American Victims of Hamas Since October 7,” the first time the U.S. government will formally recognize, in one room, its own citizens killed in the October 7 war. I have advocated for this day because most Americans have no idea their country endured one of the deadliest days of terrorism against its own citizens since September 11.
MY SON WAS ONE OF 46 AMERICANS MURDERED BY HAMAS. WE NEED A US INVESTIGATION
I am deeply grateful to Secretary of State Marco Rubio for stepping forward to host this memorial, and to the Howard and Allison Lutnick Foundation for their support. Together with the Senate’s vote, it tells grieving families something we have waited three years to hear: Washington sees us. These were not foreign casualties in someone else’s war. They were American sons, daughters and grandparents, murdered by extremists.
But what worries me most is this: a resolution and a ceremony must not become a “check the box” moment, after which Washington moves on. Acknowledgment is not healing. Recognition is not recovery. Our families need their country to act long after the cameras leave the room.
So I am asking Washington for three things.
First, pass the October 7th American Victims Family Support and Remembrance Act. It would give our families — most of whom live outside the United States — the same mental health support and medical rehabilitation Congress built for 9/11 families through the Zadroga Act, and authorize a permanent memorial to the fallen here in Washington. Grief without support is grief carried alone.
Second, Congress must establish a formal committee to investigate how nearly 50 of its own citizens came to be killed on October 7. This is not only about accountability — it is part of our families’ recovery. You cannot fully rehabilitate what you cannot explain, and three years later, our families still do not know how their loved ones were killed. Four Americans died in Benghazi and Congress ran eight investigations; nineteen died at Khobar Towers and the House investigated. Congress cannot defer to the Israeli government on understanding how its own citizens were killed. It should give the American people a clear accounting of how this happened, so that we can begin to heal.
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Third, turn the Senate’s words into justice. As Senator Scott said this week, America “has a duty to secure justice” for its murdered citizens. The Department of Justice must keep pursuing everyone responsible for October 7 — the killers, and those who financed, armed and enabled them — until each one faces justice. Every terrorist should know that killing an American carries severe and lasting consequences. That is not vengeance. It is deterrence, and it is what protects the next American family from becoming mine.
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This week, without a single objection, the Senate showed what any country owes its citizens killed by terrorists, and the families they left behind. I could not save my son. I can still demand that our country tell the truth about how this happened, work to prevent it from happening again, hold those responsible to account, and make sure no other American family has to search for that truth alone.