WASHINGTON, DC—One year after Hamas’ terrorist attacks, Congressman Jamie Raskin (MD-08) released the following statement:
“Today marks the first anniversary of an imperishably horrific, dreadful and shocking day.
“On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists brutally murdered more than 1,200 people in Israel, took 251 other people hostage, wounded hundreds more and traumatized the Israeli nation. The casualties of these atrocities included Israelis, Americans and people of other nations, among them pregnant women, elderly people, children and babies. The towns and Kibbutzim in Israel that were raided and ravaged, like Netiv HaAsara and Kibbutz Be’eri, will never be the same.
“Taking place 50 years after the beginning of the Yom Kippur War, Hamas’s terrorist slaughter was the largest murderous assault on Jewish civilians since the Holocaust. The attack also included acts of torture, sexual violence and rape, as well as the continuing brutalization of the people unlawfully held captive. This appalling assault on the people of Israel constituted a clear crime against humanity.
“One year later, humanity still grieves the staggering loss of life which took place that bitter and bloody day. The world stands with the families and loved ones of the victims and demands, along with the vast majority of hostage families marching in the streets of Tel Aviv, a ceasefire deal to expedite the immediate safe return of the remaining 101 hostages, among them both Israelis and Americans still languishing and suffering in the tunnels of Gaza a full 365 days after the initial bloody attack. Over 700 Israeli soldiers, reservists, and local security officers have also been killed in this war and thousands of Israelis remain displaced.
“Today also marks a full year of devastating war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas and continuing acts of terror and aggression in the Middle East. Civilian infrastructure and community life in the Gaza strip have been destroyed, and the consequences to the Palestinian people, as well as the Israeli people, have been catastrophic.
“More than 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, most of them women and children, and double that number have been wounded and maimed. Meantime, around 90% of the Palestinian population in Gaza have been displaced and rendered homeless, many hundreds of thousands of people reduced to desperate nomads trapped in the hellscape of a broken hungry land where no one is safe, including relief workers and journalists.
“Famine and disease have spread like wildfire through Gaza, and children are dying of malnutrition as more than 300 aid workers have been shot and killed. The World Health Organization is racing to stop the spread of polio and other deadly diseases.
“Over the past year, I have met with countless constituents directly affected by this war, including family members of Jewish Americans and Israelis killed or taken hostage and Palestinian-American constituents who have lost dozens of family members in Gaza. Each day, as bereft and anxious family members on both sides of this nightmare wait for news of their loved ones in Hamas captivity or their loved ones stuck in the besieged land of Gaza, my staff and I do whatever we can to try to reduce the misery, isolation and heartbreak afflicting Israelis and Palestinians alike.
“As the threat of full-blown regional war grows, America must redouble efforts to get Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to enter a comprehensive and bilateral ceasefire to provide for safe return of the remaining hostages, an end to the galloping violence in the region, and a global surge of humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza population. The devastating carnage in Israel and Gaza has been a tragedy for all humanity and a moral and political catastrophe.
“We will never forget the gruesome horrors of October 7 or the people lost that day, nor will we forget the people we have lost since then in the dreadful war to follow. It is in the interest of all humanity that the hostages be safely and swiftly returned home, that there be a complete bilateral ceasefire in the region, that terrorists be removed from operational control of Gaza, and that the spread to regional war be halted and reversed. There must be a permanent end to the vicious and hopeless cycles of terror and war in the region and a realization of the long-awaited two state solution for the sake of all Israelis and Palestinians—and the whole world.”
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