Calling on Hamas to Immediately Release Hostages Taken During October 2023 Attack on Israel
Floor Speech
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Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 793) calling on Hamas to immediately release hostages taken during October 2023 attack on Israel.
The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
The text of the resolution is as follows: H. Res. 793
Whereas, on October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a brutal terrorist attack from Gaza into Israel and against the Israeli people;
Whereas, on October 16, 2023, the Israeli military confirmed that Hamas killed more than 1,400 people in the attack;
Whereas, on October 15, 2023, the United States Department of State confirmed that at least 30 Americans were killed in the attack;
Whereas, on October 16, 2023, the Israeli military confirmed that Hamas was holding 199 hostages in Gaza who were abducted during the attack;
Whereas Common Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions states that the taking of hostages is and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever;
Whereas, on October 10, 2023, President Joe Biden confirmed that Americans are known to be among the hostages;
Whereas it is reported that children and senior citizens are among the hostages; and
Whereas Hamas has threatened to execute hostages and videotape the killings: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) condemns Hamas for its brutal attack on Israel;
(2) condemns Hamas for the taking of hostages;
(3) condemns Hamas for threats made against hostages;
(4) demands that Hamas immediately release all hostages and return them to safety;
(5) recognizes that the taking of hostages is a violation of international humanitarian law; and
(6) expresses sympathy to the hostages, wounded, deceased, and their families for this travesty to justice and personal hardship.
Mr. Speaker, on October 7, Israel suffered one of the worst days in its history as it came under attack by the Hamas terror group. These terrorists stormed across the border at Gaza and murdered 1,200 people and took 240 innocent people hostage, dragging them against their will into Gaza.
From elderly Holocaust survivors to young babies, Hamas did not discriminate in its cruelty.
Mr. Speaker, American citizens are still among the hostages. Many of us in this House have met with these hostage families. The pain and suffering that these families are enduring is beyond what any human should have to go through.
Young children forced to be witness to their parents' murder right in front of them, babies ripped from their mothers arms, teenagers at a music festival gunned down.
The atrocities that were committed that day and the glee with which the terrorists acted is unimaginable, Mr. Speaker, and it is the height of human depravity.
Hamas filmed and broadcast these atrocities. This savage, sick terrorist group wanted to brag to the world about the massacre at their hands.
These terrorists, Mr. Speaker, are monsters, and we have not seen this type of violence and cruelty since ISIS was running rampant in the Levant. The Jewish people have not witnessed this much diabolical death in one day since the Holocaust.
After holding these hostages for 7 long weeks, Hamas has agreed to release some of these innocent women and children in an exchange for Israel temporarily pausing its military campaign and releasing Palestinians in jail.
All of us on this House floor are grateful for those hostage releases, and we are grateful for the leadership of the United States, Qatar, and the Government of Israel to achieve that modicum of peace and help for those families.
However, listen to the deal, Mr. Speaker. It was three jailed criminals for each innocent person captured and drug across the Gaza fence line on October 7. Despite the good news that we have witnessed in the last few days, Hamas is still holding over 150 innocent people.
Hamas must release all the remaining hostages. The United States continues to stand alongside our ally Israel in their fight to secure that safe release of all the hostages unconditionally and safely.
It was an honor and privilege working together with Congresswoman Haley Stevens, and I am so proud to be on the House floor tonight alongside Congresswoman Haley Stevens to introduce this resolution.
With this resolution, the House of Representatives strongly condemns Hamas' attack. It calls on Hamas to immediately and unconditionally release all the hostages taken on October 7.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee has marked up this legislation earlier in the month, and it received unanimous support. I expect it will receive that today on this House floor.
Mr. Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to stand with the hostages, with their families, and support this measure.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Michigan for her passionate words and her outstanding work in crafting this H. Res. 793, which calls on Hamas to release everyone unconditionally to return to their families.
Ms. Stevens has done a great thing. Between us, we come to this House floor with some 236 cosponsors for this resolution, Mr. Speaker.
I would certainly hope that on both sides of this aisle that we have a unanimous vote on this important statement of the American people, representing the American people, calling out against the atrocities that have been committed against the innocent people in Israel.
I thank my friend from Michigan, too, for our work together and partnership and co-chairing the Congressional Task Force on American Hostages and Americans Wrongly Detained Abroad.
This is important work. It has been truly tested in these past 7 weeks. Our congressional family is grieving with our Israeli families and other nationalities who have someone as a murder victim of these terrorists or someone who remains a hostage of these terrorists.
It is our goal to be a resource to our fellow Members through that task force to try to help them work with our State Department and make sure those families understand what information they can have and how they can be helped through this challenge. We want to bring all these Americans home.
Before I conclude, Mr. Speaker, I just would say we were all on the front steps of the Capitol together, Democrats and Republicans, and we stood as Americans that night with our new Speaker, Mike Johnson; our minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries; Ms. Stevens, myself, our colleagues; our committee chairs, Mr. Meeks of New York as our ranking member of Foreign Affairs; and our committee chairman, Mr. McCaul of Texas, in solidarity against the atrocities in Gaza and in Israel.
That night, I had the opportunity to have the most wonderful visit with the most hopeful mother, Adi Marciano--a beautiful woman.
We hugged and talked, and we had in the candlelight of that moment on the House steps a moment of hope, but just a few hours later, she learned that her daughter, Noa, 19 years old, Mr. Speaker, a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, was among the murdered, not among the hostages.
We don't want to forget those who have been killed in this process as we pray for the release of the hostages, and we call politically on this House floor for the release of the hostages.
We lift up these families, and we lift up all those who are grieving over the loss and tragedy on both sides of the fence in Gaza.
Mr. Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to support H. Res. 793. I reserve the balance of my time, and I have no additional speakers.
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Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from North Carolina for leading the discussion on our House floor today on the gentlewoman from Michigan's excellent resolution, H. Res. 793.
I am proud to be a cosponsor, proud to stand with 236 Members on both sides of the aisle to demand an unconditional release of those still held hostage by the terrorists in Gaza and their coconspirators.
I urge a ``yes'' vote, Mr. Speaker, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
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