November 9, 2023 — Washington, DC
American Jewish Committee (AJC) today welcomed the U.S. Senate’s unanimous passage of a bipartisan resolution condemning the Hamas terror attack on October 7 and demanding that Hamas release all hostages and allow for their safe return home. The resolution, introduced by Senators Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Todd Young (R-IN), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ben Cardin (D-MD), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), and Mitt Romney (R-UT), was adopted on day 33 of the hostages being held in Gaza.
“Through advocacy, awareness raising, and direct and sustained engagement with families of hostages, AJC has been working since October 7 to secure the safety and release of the more than 240 people – including elderly, disabled, women, and children – taken hostage by Hamas, the Iran-backed terror group ruling Gaza,” said AJC CEO Ted Deutch. “We have helped numerous delegations of families of those held hostage meet with members of Congress, the United Nations, and officials in the U.S. Administration including the Vice President, the State Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and others. We have leveraged our voice to help these families tell their stories in the media, ensuring their relatives' plight is not forgotten. We will not stop until every single hostage is back home, safe with their loved ones. We thank the Senate, and specifically Sens. Rosen, Young, Booker, Rubio, Cardin, Cassidy, Duckworth, and Romney, for making clear that the American people stand with Israel and are dedicated to bringing every single hostage home.”
Israeli Defense Forces have shared that approximately 30 hostages are children up to the age of 18, between 10 to 20 hostages are elderly people aged 60+, and that Hamas terrorists also took bodies of the deceased into Gaza. The hostages include nationals of nearly thirty countries in addition to Israel: the United States, Thailand, Argentina, Germany, France, Russia, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, China, the Philippines, Romania, Tanzania, the UK, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Lithuania, Mexico, Nepal, the Netherlands, Serbia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Ukraine and Uruguay.
AJC continues to urge the American people to join in calling on Congress and the UN to secure the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza.
AJC is the global advocacy organization for the Jewish people. With headquarters in New York, 25 offices across the United States, 14 overseas posts, as well as partnerships with 38 Jewish community organizations worldwide, AJC’s mission is to enhance the well-being of the Jewish people and Israel, and to advance human rights and democratic values in the United States and around the world. For more, please visit www.ajc.org.
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