Senate Republicans joined Sen. John Fetterman in defeating a Democratic amendment that sought a rapid State Department report on nine Americans killed in the West Bank, stopping the measure 47-51.
Mediaite reported that senators rejected an amendment from Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) requiring the State Department to submit a report to Congress within 30 days on the deaths of at least nine U.S. citizens in the West Bank since January 2022.
The vote was 47-51. Fifty of the 51 Republicans who voted opposed the measure. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was the only Republican to support it. Every Democratic senator voted for the amendment except Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA).
Van Hollen cast the fight as unfinished business over American deaths and broader grievances in the territory. Republicans declined to adopt his vehicle. Fetterman broke from his party and left the amendment short.
After the roll call, Van Hollen took to social media and claimed the largest backing yet for his effort.
He wrote:
"Tonight, 47 Senators supported my resolution to get accountability for the 9 Americans killed on the West Bank & for Palestinians who face injustices daily. That’s more support than we’ve ever had in this fight. Republicans blocked us, but we won’t stop until we get justice."
The amendment’s own text went further than a neutral request for facts. It stated that protecting U.S. citizens abroad is one of the foremost responsibilities of the federal government. It then asserted that the killings “have been met by a lack of accountability from the Netanyahu government and an inability to secure justice by the United States Government.”
That language mattered. The measure did not simply ask the State Department what it knew. It baked in a verdict about Israeli leadership and American failure, then demanded a report in no more than 30 days after adoption.
The reprinted “whereas” clauses named the dead and described how each died, assigning responsibility to Israeli settlers, soldiers, or security forces in each case.
The list ran from January 2022 through early 2026. It named Omar Assad, Shireen Abu Akleh, Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, Mohammad Khdour, Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, Amer Rabee, Sayfollah Kamel Musallet, Khamis Ayyad, and Nasrallah Abu Siyam.
According to the amendment text, Assad, 78, was stopped at a checkpoint in Jiljilya in January 2022, dragged from his car by Israeli soldiers, bound, gagged, and blindfolded, and died of a stress-induced heart attack. Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist, was shot in the head in May 2022 near the Jenin refugee camp while wearing a vest marking her as press, the text said.
The same document said Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, 17, was shot in the head and killed in January 2024 while driving east of Ramallah, “reportedly by an Israeli settler, an off-duty Israeli police officer, and an Israel Defense Forces soldier.” It said Mohammad Ahmad Alkhdour, also 17, was shot twice in the head near Biddu the next month, “reportedly by Israeli forces.”
Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, 26 and raised in Seattle, was shot in the head in September 2024 by an Israeli soldier from 200 meters, the amendment stated. Amer Mohammad Saada Rabee, a 14-year-old from New Jersey, was shot and killed in April 2025 at the entrance to Turmus Ayya by Israeli security forces, with reports cited in the text that he was hit 11 times by two different guns.
In July 2025, the text said, Sayfollah Kamel Musallet, a 20-year-old from Florida visiting family, was beaten to death by Israeli settlers during an attack on Sinjil. Eyewitness accounts cited in the amendment said settlers and Israeli forces blocked ambulance access for more than two hours.
On July 15, 2025, the amendment noted, Ambassador Mike Huckabee called Musallet’s killing a “criminal and terrorist act” and said “there must be accountability.”
Khamis Ayyad, 40, a Palestinian-American father of five, died of smoke inhalation in August 2025 after settlers set homes and cars on fire in Silwad, the text said. Nasrallah Abu Siyam, 19 and born in Philadelphia, was shot and killed in February 2026 in Mukhmas near Ramallah by settlers during an attack on Palestinian farmers, per the same clauses.
A separate August 2026 clause described Khamis Rabee Jabara, an 82-year-old Palestinian American, hospitalized after Israeli soldiers used a flashbang grenade against him in Turmusayya and confiscated bystander footage.
Those accounts are the amendment’s claims. The Senate was not asked to order a blank-slate review. It was asked to green-light a rapid State Department product built on that narrative.
Republicans treated the measure as a no. Fifty of 51 voting Republicans opposed it. Only Paul crossed over.
Democrats nearly locked arms behind Van Hollen. Fetterman was the exception. He did not vote for the amendment, leaving him alone among Senate Democrats on the roll call described in the report.
No public explanation from Fetterman appears in the available account of the vote. The split is still plain on the board: a Democratic author, near-unanimous Democratic support, near-unanimous Republican resistance, and one Democratic defector.
The practical result was simple. The State Department was not put under a 30-day clock by this amendment. No new congressional mandate issued from the Van Hollen text.
The same report noted other flashpoints in the territory. It said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) had been detained by Israeli settlers and soldiers there. It also said CNN reported in July that an Israeli settler pulled a knife on a network crew.
Van Hollen’s post tied American deaths to “Palestinians who face injustices daily.” The amendment text accused the Netanyahu government of a lack of accountability and the U.S. government of an inability to secure justice. Republicans refused to move that framed package across the floor.
Paul’s yes vote stood alone in his conference. Fetterman’s refusal to join Democrats stood alone in his. The rest of the chamber sorted by party on a measure that cast Israeli actors as the perpetrators and Israeli leadership as the obstacle.
Roll call records and the resolution text were linked through the congressional pages cited in the coverage. The political math did not change: 47 in favor, 51 against, amendment failed.
Democrats can demand reports that pre-load blame onto a key U.S. ally. They still need Republican votes to make that demand binding, and on this one, they did not get them.
