Iran could dilute 60% enriched uranium ---
if ‘all sanctions are lifted’: Nuclear chief
February 9th, 4:02pm
(PressTV)
The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said
any potential dilution of 60% enriched uranium - would depend
entirely on whether all sanctions against the country are lifted.
Mohammad Eslami made the remarks in Tehran on Monday while
speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the inauguration of the
"Electrical and Radiation Safety" Laboratory.
Addressing recent speculations regarding the potential removal of
enriched uranium from Iranian soil, he dismissed the reports as
"content pursued by various pressure elements" against Iran.
“Such a matter has fundamentally not been on the agenda,”
Eslami clarified, adding that the proposal may have come
“from a country or individual thinking it might help.”
Iran and the United States held new nuclear talks on Friday, with
both sides signaling that further discussions are expected soon.
The two countries had previously conducted five rounds of
negotiations before the US–Israeli agression in June, but
those efforts yielded no breakthrough.
Before US and Israeli strikes on its nuclear facilities, Iran had
enriched uranium to 60 percent, exceeding the 3.67% limit
set under the now-defunct 2015 nuclear agreement with
the United States and other countries.
Iran possessed around 400 kilograms of highly enriched uranium
before the US–Israeli agression, and the fate of this stockpile
has been a central focus of discussions.
In May 2018, US President Donald Trump unilaterally and illegally
withdrew the US from the nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions
under the so-called “maximum pressure” campaign.
When asked about the possibility of Iran's nuclear file being
referred to the UN Security Council, Eslami emphasized
that the outcome depends entirely on the political will
and "honesty" of the Western parties.
"It depends on how truthful they are and to what extent they
wish to avoid repeating their past mistakes," he said.
"If they have the sincerity to set aside nuclear pretexts and stop
creating problems for the Iranian people, the situation will
change. However, their current trend of using every tool
to disrupt the country's progress will never succeed; it
has failed in the past and will fail in the future,
whether in the Board of Governors..... or the
Security Council," the AEOI chief added.
Eslami reiterated that Iran operates strictly within the framework
of Safeguards and the law, noting that despite years of intensive
inspections, there has not been a single report of
non-compliance.
Criticizing IAEA's silence on attacks
Iran's nuclear chief slammed the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) for its silence over military attacks on Iranian
nuclear facilities.
He pointed out that the Agency has an "unfulfilled duty"
to condemn attacks on sites that are under its own
supervision and certification.
"If we are under the Agency's supervision and hold its
credentials, the IAEA cannot remain silent or display
unprofessional, political behaviour regarding such
incidents," Eslami stated.
Iran proposed a plan at the IAEA General Conference to bar
attacks on safeguarded nuclear facilities, but the US
formally blocked it, he said.
Regarding the current status of interactions, Eslami confirmed
that cooperation continues for the facilities that were not
targeted in US-Israeli military strikes.
"With the authorization of the Supreme Council [of National
Security], IAEA inspection teams have visited and
monitored these centres since the conflict,"
Eslami said.
He added that a few remaining sites are scheduled for inspection
"in the coming days," confirming that technical engagement
remains active within the safeguards framework.
_____________________________________________________
FBI chief vows to ‘hunt down’ those
who kill US citizens – except Israel
February 9th, 3:25pm
by Maryam Qarehgozlou
US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Friday that Zubayr
al-Bakoush, a suspect in the 2012 attack on the US embassy in
Benghazi, Libya, has been arrested and transferred to the
United States.
Bondi claimed that al-Bakoush played a central role in the attack
that killed four Americans and will face charges including
murder, arson, and terrorism-related offenses.
He is the third individual to be criminally charged
in connection with the Benghazi attack.
Two others – Ahmed Abu Khatallah and Mustafa al-Imam – are
currently serving lengthy prison sentences, while another
suspect, Ali Awni al-Harzi, was killed in a US airstrike
in Iraq in 2015.
Al-Bakoush faces an eight-count indictment -- including murder,
attempted murder, arson, and conspiracy to support terrorism,
according to Jeanine Pirro, the top US prosecutor in the
District of Columbia.
Following al-Bakoush’s arrest, FBI Director Kash Patel said that
killing a US citizen is an act of terrorism, and perpetrators will
be prosecuted in the United States.
“I’m extremely thankful to the CIA and director [John] Ratcliffe
and our other law enforcement partners for making sure that
the world knows that if you kill an American citizen in an
act of terrorism, we will hunt you down, we will bring
you to justice, and you will face justice --- here in
America, not in another court, and not in any
other proceeding around the world, but
here,” he said.
After Patel shared a video of his remarks on X, formerly Twitter,
users quickly pointed out a glaring exception: the Israeli regime.
From Rachel Corrie, crushed by an Israeli military bulldozer in
2003, to Khamis Ayyad, who died from smoke inhalation
during a settler arson attack in 2025, at least thirteen
US citizens have been killed by Israeli regime
forces over the past two decades.
These victims included journalists reporting from the field, aid
workers delivering food, peace activists protesting home
demolitions, teenagers shot at checkpoints, and a 78-
year-old grandfather detained and left to die.
Yet in cases involving Israeli forces, the US government has
consistently deferred to Israeli military investigations –
probes that human rights organizations have long
condemned as whitewashes.
Rights groups have repeatedly documented that Israeli
occupation forces are almost never held accountable
within the regime’s legal system when they kill or
seriously harm Palestinians.
To date, no one has been charged or held accountable for the
killing of any US citizen by Israeli forces, and the successive
US administrations have chosen not to take up the issue.
US citizenship, according to activists, offers no protection from
violence at the hands of the Israeli regime – and no guarantee
of justice when that violence proves fatal.
Nor are Palestinian Americans the only ones at risk. Several US
citizens who are not Palestinian have also been subjected to
lethal force by Israeli forces and illegal settlers on
Palestinian land.
For decades, Washington has shielded Israel from international
scrutiny. It has never seriously engaged with mounting
evidence of Israel’s systematic violations of
international law, including the killing of
US citizens.
The mounting record suggests that the United States prioritizes
its strategic relationship with Israel over the lives and rights
of its own citizens, as activists note.
What follows are the names, stories, and circumstances of
US citizens killed by Israeli forces – and the complete
absence of accountability that followed.
Rachel Corrie
On March 16, 2003, an Israeli military bulldozer crushed to death
23-year-old US peace activist Rachel Corrie as she attempted
to prevent the demolition of Palestinian homes in Rafah,
southern Gaza Strip.
She was wearing a clearly marked fluorescent
vest when she was attacked.
Corrie grew up in Olympia, Washington. While in college, she
joined the Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace and
later the International Solidarity Movement (ISM).
She traveled to Rafah in January 2003 and received two days
of nonviolent resistance training to assist in ISM activities.
Corrie was horrified by what she witnessed in Gaza: widespread
home demolitions, arbitrary detentions, and daily killings.
In an interview just days before her killing, she said, “I feel like
what I’m witnessing here is a very systematic destruction of
people’s ability to survive. And that is incredibly horrifying.”
She also documented her experiences in
letters and emails to her family.
In one email, she wrote, “Now the Israeli army has actually dug
up the road to Gaza, and both of the major checkpoints are
closed. This means that Palestinians who want to go and
register for their next quarter at university can’t. People
can’t get to their jobs, and those who are trapped on
the other side can’t get home; and internationals,
who have a meeting tomorrow in the West Bank,
won’t make it.”
An Israeli military investigation in 2003 absolved its forces of
responsibility, blaming Corrie for her own death and claiming
the bulldozer operators did not see her. The army refused
to release key evidence.
In 2012, an Israeli sham court ruled that Israel was not at fault,
rejecting a civil negligence lawsuit brought by Corrie’s parents
against the Israeli ministry of military affairs.
The Israeli Supreme Court upheld the ruling in 2015. The US
government merely criticized the investigation but refused
to take any concrete measures to ensure justice
and accountability.
Furkan Dogan
Furkan Dogan was just 19 years old when Israeli forces killed
him on May 31, 2010, during the attack on the Mavi Marmara,
a Turkish humanitarian aid ship sailing in international waters.
The Mavi Marmara was the largest vessel in a six-ship flotilla
attempting to deliver food, medicine, and school supplies to
Israel-besieged Gaza.
Dogan was filming the Israeli military raid when an Israeli
commando shot him point-blank in the face. Four
additional bullets ---- were fired into his body,
leaving him dead and severely disfigured.
He was one of ten civilians killed in the
attack, all of them Turkish nationals.
Dogan was a high school student studying social sciences in
Kayseri, Turkey. He was born in Troy, New York, and moved
to Turkey at the age of two.
The US government dismissed the killing, blocked efforts toward
an independent investigation, and accepted the conclusions of
an Israeli inquiry that found no wrongdoing by any of the
soldiers involved.
In 2015, Dogan’s parents filed a lawsuit in California, under the
Alien Tort Statute (ATS) and the Torture Victim Protection Act
(TVPA) against Ehud Barak, Israel’s former minister of
military affairs.
In 2016, a US district court dismissed the claims of extrajudicial
killing and torture, despite findings by the International Criminal
Court (ICC) that war crimes had been committed during the raid.
The dismissal followed a formal request from the Israeli regime
urging the US State Department to submit a “suggestion of
immunity” on Barak’s behalf. Washington complied.
Nearly three years later, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
dismissed the appeal, ruling in Barak’s favour.
Orwah Hammad
Orwah Hammad, a 14-year-old Palestinian American from New
Orleans, Louisiana, was killed by Israeli forces on October 24,
2014, in the village of Silwad near Ramallah in the occupied
West Bank.
Hammad was shot in the neck and head during a demonstration
protesting the killing of another Palestinian earlier that week.
The US State Department called for a “speedy and transparent
investigation” into Hammad’s killing and expressed muted
concern, but ultimately took no action.
The Israeli military announced it would investigate the shooting.
Soldiers later justified the killing by claiming Hammad had
been armed, though no evidence was provided.
An internal Israeli investigation subsequently
cleared the military of any wrongdoing.
Mahmoud Shaalan
Mahmoud Shaalan was a 16-year-old high
school student born and raised in Florida.
On February 26, 2016, Israeli soldiers shot him four times at a
checkpoint near the Beit El settlement, close to the occupied
West Bank city of Ramallah.
After shooting Shaalan, soldiers stripped his body, left him
bleeding on the road for more than two hours, and
prevented a Palestinian ambulance from taking
him to a hospital.
The Israeli military claimed Shaalan had stabbed a soldier and
continued trying to attack other troops after being shot.
However, Israeli media later reported that eyewitnesses told
activists Shaalan had been shot in the back -- following an
apparent verbal dispute with soldiers at the checkpoint.
Later that year, Israeli authorities informed US officials that
they found no criminal wrongdoing by the soldiers involved
and would not pursue the case further.
Shaalan’s uncle, Salman Shaalan, said at the time that the
Obama administration had failed to pressure Israel to
conduct a serious investigation.
Mahmoud hoped to study medicine in college but his
dreams were shattered by the Israeli barbarism.
Omar Assad
Omar Assad, a 78-year-old Palestinian American, died on January
12, 2022, after being detained by Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint
in his home village of Jiljilya, near Ramallah in the occupied
West Bank.
According to witnesses and his family, Assad was forced out of
his car, gagged, blindfolded, and dragged along the ground. He
became unresponsive, and soldiers left him in the cold at a
construction site without medical assistance.
An autopsy later concluded that Assad died of a heart attack
“due to the external violence he was exposed to” by the
Israeli forces that held him.
Assad had spent four decades living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
where he raised his children. In 2009, he returned to
Palestine to spend his final years.
His death drew widespread condemnation. The Assad family
and Palestinian rights advocates called on the Biden
administration to conduct an independent
investigation and hold Israel accountable.
In 2023, the Israeli army announced that soldiers involved
in the incident had been disciplined but that none would
face criminal charges.
In April 2024, the US State Department said it was considering
sanctions against the Netzah Yehuda Battalion, the Israeli
unit involved in Assad’s detention - and one that had long
been notorious for systematic abuses in the West Bank.
Nearly four months later, however, the department said Secretary
of State Antony Blinken had determined the battalion’s issues
had been “remediated” - allowing it to continue receiving US funding.
Shireen Abu Akleh
Veteran Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by
a single shot to the head on May 11, 2022, while covering an
Israeli military raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the
occupied West Bank.
After she was shot, Israeli soldiers prevented bystanders from
reaching her, ensuring that she bled to death. Abu Akleh was
wearing a clearly marked press vest and standing with a
group of journalists when she was killed in cold blood.
Eyewitness testimony and video evidence
showed she was targeted deliberately.
In an interview with the Press TV website, Shatha Hanaysha, who
was with her at the time of the incident, described it as “the
hardest experience” of her life, not because she had a
narrow escape but because she and other young
Palestinian journalists lost their friend,
philosopher, and guide.
“I know who shot Shireen and who tried to kill the rest of us, they
were Israeli troops and not anyone else,” the 29-year-old
reporter told Press TV. “It was not at all a case of
mistaken identity.”
Initially, the Israeli military claimed Palestinian gunmen were
responsible. It later revised its account, saying Abu Akleh
was likely killed by Israeli soldiers but “by mistake.”
In a rare move, the US government announced it would
investigate her killing, a decision publicly rejected by
then Israeli minister of military affairs, Benny Gantz.
“I have delivered a message to US representatives that we stand
by [Israeli] soldiers, that we will not cooperate with an external
investigation, and will not enable intervention in internal
investigations,” Gantz said.
Israel refused to allow US investigators to interview the soldier or
even to disclose his identity. A subsequent investigation by The
Guardian identified the soldier, who was later killed in Jenin
and buried as a “hero.”
The investigation also revealed that fellow soldiers
had used images of Abu Akleh for target practice.
In July 2022, the Biden administration endorsed Israel’s account,
stating it “found no reason to believe” Abu Akleh had been
intentionally targeted.
However, in October 2025, retired US Army Colonel, Steve
Gabavics, the senior US officer who examined the scene,
said he had concluded at the time that Abu Akleh,
despite clearly wearing a press vest, was
deliberately shot.
Gabavics said his findings were softened for political
reasons ......to avoid harming US-Israel relations.
Tony Abu Akleh, Shireen’s brother, described the administration’s
response as a “whitewash,” saying it entrenched impunity for
Israeli forces and failed to deter further killings of journalists
in Gaza.
Tawfiq Ajaq
Tawfiq Ajaq, a 17-year-old Palestinian American born and raised
in Gretna, Louisiana, was killed on January 19, 2024, in the
occupied West Bank village of al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya.
Ajaq had traveled to Palestine in May 2023 to visit family
near Ramallah and to “reconnect with their roots.”
According to his family and Defense for Children International –
Palestine (DCI-P), Ajaq was riding in a truck with a friend near
a highway when gunfire erupted.
The shots came from an Israeli settler in a vehicle roughly
100 metres away. As Ajaq and his friend tried to drive off,
the settler pursued them.
An Israeli military vehicle then “appeared from the opposite
direction” and began firing from a distance of 50 to 70
metres, according to DCI-P documentation.
As Ajaq lay bleeding, Israeli forces blocked emergency
responders for approximately 15 minutes. He was
later taken to a hospital in Silwad, where he
was pronounced dead from a gunshot
wound to the head.
Israeli forces claimed they were targeting individuals “believed
to be throwing rocks along Highway 60,” a claim rejected by
Ajaq’s family, who said the teens were planning a barbecue.
Ajaq was the first American killed in the West Bank since the
start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023,
which has until now killed over 72,000 Palestinians.
The US State Department called for “an urgent
investigation” and said it was “devastated.”
Officials from the US Office of Palestinian Affairs visited Ajaq’s
family and pledged to push Israel ----- to conduct a “full and
transparent investigation and bring the killer to justice.”
Representative Rashida Tlaib urged the US State Department
to open its own investigation “into the murder of another
American” by the Israeli regime.
Although Biden issued an executive order on February 1, 2024,
imposing sanctions on four violent Israeli settlers, the order
was repealed by Donald Trump in January 2025.
As of October 2024, Israeli authorities had not collected
eyewitness testimony for Ajaq’s case. As of July 2025,
no findings had been released, and no suspects
were ever charged.
Ajaq’s uncle, Mohammad Abdeljabbar, said justice for
Americans killed in Palestine was routinely denied,
citing Washington’s unwillingness to pressure its
“ironclad ally.”
“They are using our tax dollars in the US to support the
weapons ----- to kill our own children,” his father said.
A high-performing student, Ajaq planned to attend the
University of New Orleans. He had not yet decided
whether to study business or engineering.
Mohammad Khdour
Less than a month later, on February 10, 2024, 17-year-old
Palestinian American Mohammad Khdour, born in Florida,
was shot in the head and killed by an Israeli soldier.
Khdour was killed west of the Palestinian town
of Biddu, northwest of occupied al-Quds.
Israeli forces opened fire on a car in which Mohammad was
traveling with a relative in a wooded area near the town of
Qattana. As gunfire erupted, the vehicle overturned while
attempting to flee.
Mohammad sustained gunshot wounds to the head. He was
transported by ambulance to the Palestine Medical
Complex in Ramallah, where medical staff
attempted to resuscitate him.
He was later pronounced dead.
According to his family, Khdour and his cousin were driving home
from a picnic when a gunman on the Israeli side of a nearby
border fence, whom they described as a guard, opened
fire on their car. The cousin was unharmed.
Blinken... offered his “deepest condolences” to the families of the
two Palestinian-American teenagers killed in the occupied West
Bank and said there must be an investigation into their deaths.
“We’ve made clear that with regard to the incidents you’ve alluded
to, there needs to be an investigation. We need to get the facts.
And if appropriate, there needs to be accountability,” Blinken
said at a news conference in Albania in response to a
CNN question.
Mohammad’s uncle dismissed the statement as empty rhetoric.
“We don’t need talking, man. We need something. We want to
see something.”
The family said they later received a call from a US Embassy
official, who told them the Israeli investigation into
Mohammad’s killing was progressing.
No official announcement has been made, and Israel
has not reported arresting any suspects.
Mohammad’s family described him as a gentle teenager
who loved cars. He hoped to finish high school and
then attend college in the US..... to study law.
Jacob Flickinger
Jacob Flickinger, a dual US-Canadian citizen, was among the
humanitarian workers killed on April 1, 2024, when Israeli
forces bombed a World Central Kitchen convoy in Gaza
amid Israel’s genocidal war.
Flickinger, 33, and six other aid workers were killed shortly after
delivering humanitarian food assistance to the people in Gaza.
Israel’s military apologized, described the attack
as a mistake, and promised a full investigation.
Flickinger’s parents rejected the apology and
described their son’s killing as a “crime.”
John Flickinger and Sylvia Labrecque said there was a “hole
in their hearts,” and that Jacob’s wife, Sandy, and their 18-
month-old son, Jasper, were left ------- without a husband
and father.
John Flickinger said the US Department of Justice
never contacted the family following the attack.
“It’s very frustrating. It’s very disheartening…you would think
as a US citizen, the United States would take more of an
interest in his killing,” he said.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old American Turkish woman and
resident of Seattle, Washington, was shot in the head by an
Israeli sniper on September 6, 2024, in the occupied
West Bank.
Eygi had been participating in a peaceful protest against
settlement expansion near Nablus, a town in the
occupied West Bank.
She had arrived in the occupied West Bank just three days
earlier to volunteer with Palestinian communities facing
violence from Israeli soldiers and settlers.
An Israeli military investigation concluded within days - that
it was “highly likely” Eygi had been struck “indirectly and
unintentionally by [the Israeli military] fire which was
not aimed at her,” claiming the soldiers had been
targeting others, allegedly throwing rocks.
A subsequent Washington Post investigation found that Eygi
was shot roughly half an hour after any clashes had ended
and that she was standing approximately 200 yards from
Israeli soldiers at the time she was killed.
US officials described the killing as “unprovoked and unjustified,”
but despite repeated requests from Eygi’s family, the United
States declined to open its own investigation.
The Turkish government investigated the killing -- and
concluded that Eygi had been “deliberately targeted.”
Ankara submitted evidence to the United Nations Security
Council, the International Court of Justice, and the
International Criminal Court.
The absence of accountability, Eygi’s family
said, was not due to a lack of effort.
When the family met with Blinken in December 2024, they
asked him directly: “What can you do?” recalled Eygi’s
husband, Hamid Ali.
He said the response amounted to
“a lot of shoulder shrugging.”
“He [Blinken] was very deferential to the Israelis. It felt like
he was saying his hands were tied and they weren’t able
to really do much.”
The State Department told the family.. that launching an
investigation would be the responsibility of the Justice
Department, which later wrote that it would
“carefully review” their request. No
follow-up ever came.
Amer Rabee
On April 6, near the West Bank village of Turmus Aya, where
many residents hold US citizenship, Israeli soldiers killed
Amer Rabee, a 14-year-old Palestinian American born
in New Jersey.
According to his family, Israeli regime forces handed over
Amer’s naked, bullet-riddled body several hours later
in a blue body bag.
Amer had been shot at least 11 times, his
father, Mohammed Rabee, said.
Photographs taken on a cellphone by a family friend who
accompanied the family to retrieve Amer’s body
appeared to show multiple entry wounds
---- including one in the centre of his
forehead - and others in his neck
and upper torso.
The Israeli military claimed Amer and two friends were
throwing rocks at a highway and described the boys
as “terrorists,” saying soldiers had “eliminated”
one and shot the others.
Amer’s family and one of the surviving boys rejected the
claim, saying the children had been picking almonds...
and jokingly throwing dried almonds at each other.
Even if stones had been thrown, Rabee said, the soldiers
could have fired warning shots, or detained the boys.
“He was 14 years old,” he said. “It takes no
special training to catch a little kid.”
At the time, US Senators Andy Kim and Cory Booker called
for an American-led investigation into Amer’s killing, but
the Trump administration declined to commit to any
such action.
US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said at
an April press briefing that the Israeli military believed it
had been preventing an act of terrorism.
“We need to learn more about the nature of
what happened on the ground,” she added.
Sayfollah Musallet
On July 11, 2025, Sayfollah Musallet, a 20-year-old Palestinian-
American from Florida, was beaten to death by illegal Israeli
settlers while visiting relatives in his village near occupied
al-Quds.
The attack took place on land belonging to his family’s farm.
According to witnesses and family members, Israeli soldiers
blocked ambulances from reaching Musallet for three hours.
During that time, Sayfollah, known as Saif to his family,
remained conscious, gasping for air and vomiting as
he was held in the arms of his younger brother.
Another young man, 23-year-old Razek Hussein al-Shalabi, was
shot during the same attack and left to bleed to death. When
ambulances finally arrived, settlers attacked the medics.
Saif was pronounced dead before reaching
the hospital. He died in his brother’s arms.
The Israeli military claimed the incident began after stones
were thrown at Israeli settlers and said...... it was
investigating the attack.
For Musallet’s family, the devastation has been compounded
by what they describe as indifference from the US
government to the killing of a US citizen.
Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israeli-occupied
territories, called on Israel to investigate the killing
but offered no public support to the family.
The family is acutely aware that the arrest and prosecution of
violent settlers is rare, considering the Trump administration's
rescission of the Biden-era sanctions on Israeli settler groups
for attacking Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Despite this record, Musallet’s family has called on the US State
Department to open its own investigation into Saif’s killing.
There has been no follow-up.
The killing was not the family’s only ordeal.
Saif’s 16-year-old cousin, Mohammed Zaher Ibrahim — also
a US citizen — has been held for months in Israel’s
Megiddo prison.
His family says he has been accused of throwing
stones, an allegation ------- they reject.
They say he has lost nearly 30 pounds and developed a severe
skin infection while incarcerated, with no family visits or
phone calls permitted.
Khamis al-Ayyad
Khamis al-Ayyad, a 40-year-old father of five and a resident
of Chicago, died from smoke inhalation on July 31, 2025,
after Israeli settlers attacked the town of Silwad, east
of Ramallah.
The assault took place around 2:30 a.m., when
approximately ten settlers set homes and
cars on fire.
Residents rushed outside to extinguish the flames but were
met with tear gas fired by Israeli soldiers, according to
Silwad’s mayor, Raed Hamed.
The Israeli military acknowledged that an attack had
occurred... but said it was unable to identify any
suspects. Israeli police said an investigation
had been opened.
No one has been held accountable for Ayyad’s death.
“The government should protect citizens, this is what is
written on the American passport. Why do they do
nothing when it comes to their own citizens who
live in the West Bank?” said Ayyad’s brother,
Anas al-Ayyad, 39.
Ayyad was the latest Palestinian American killed in the
occupied West Bank. Since October 7, 2023, five US
citizens have been killed there, with Ayyad the
second in July alone.
The killings have taken place amid a surge in violence
in the occupied West Bank, where more than 1,000
Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers
and settlers since the start of Israel’s war
on Gaza.
Senator Chris Van Hollen said the Trump administration’s
repeal of US sanctions on violent Israeli settlers has
“sent a message that violent settlers can literally
get away with murder.”
‘Accountability ------------- never arrives’
US law is unambiguous: Any proven extrajudicial killing
should result in the termination of US military and
financial assistance to the unit responsible.
Multiple statutes, including the Leahy Law, prohibit the
United States from providing military aid to foreign
security forces implicated in gross human
rights violations.
Yet despite extensive documentation of apparent
extrajudicial killings and systemic abuses in the
occupied Palestinian territory, Israel continues
to receive billions of dollars in US military
assistance each year.
In October, DAWN, a US nonprofit organization working
to reform US policy in West Asia and North Africa and
to hold human rights abusers accountable, urged
Congress to introduce a resolution under
Section 502B(c) of the Foreign
Assistance Act.
The resolution would compel the State Department to
conduct a comprehensive investigation and issue a
report on the killings of thirteen American citizens
by Israeli forces and settlers since 2003.
“Congress should force the State Department to investigate
and report on these shocking killings of Americans by
Israeli forces, for which not a single person has been
held accountable,” said Sarah Leah Whitson,
executive director of DAWN.
“When Israeli forces kill thirteen Americans, including a
78-year-old grandfather, teenage boys, a celebrated
journalist, and aid workers, over two decades and
not one person is held accountable, that’s not
a series of tragic accidents — that’s
systematic impunity.”
Under Section 502B(c), Congress has the authority to compel
the State Department to provide detailed findings on the
human rights record of any country receiving US
military aid.
The department must respond within 30 days or face
an automatic suspension of security assistance.
“This is not a series of tragic accidents. This is systematic
impunity — a decades-long pattern in which American
lives are taken with complete disregard, and the US
government fails to demand justice,” DAWN said.
“When Israeli forces kill Americans, our State Department issues
statements expressing concern and promises investigations.
But the investigations never come. The accountability
never arrives. The pattern continues, emboldened
by American silence.. and the flow of billions of
dollars in US military aid with no conditions,
no consequences, and no regard for
American lives,” it added.
____________________________________
