Americans for Peace Now (APN) welcomes the news of a deal to release some fifty hostages held by Hamas and other militants in the Gaza Strip, and the agreement to a four day long ceasefire. The taking of hostages is a war crime, and we reiterate our call for the immediate release of all of the hostages, and for Red Cross access to those not being immediately released. 

The mutually agreed upon ceasefire is a welcome development. The ceasefire will allow for both the release of hostages and the provision of essential humanitarian aid to Gazan civilians, including food, water, medicine and fuel. In addition, we welcome the reported agreement to release all Palestinian minors held in Israeli prisons. 

APN’s President and CEO Hadar Susskind said: “Releasing some hostages is a positive first step. The rest of the hostages should also be released immediately. In addition, I am pleased to see a mutually agreed upon ceasefire that, hopefully, will begin to shape a post-war reality on both sides of the Israel-Gaza border. Such a reality would end the hostilities, provide security and stability for Israel, address the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip and kick off the challenging task of rebuilding Gaza. As President Biden thankfully asserts, this road must lead to a new era in Israeli-Palestinian relations, one that is governed by pursuit of an agreement that would result in two sovereign states for the benefit of both peoples.”  

The weeks since the horrifying October 7 Hamas attack have been devastating for both Israeli and Palestinian children.

During the atrocities on October 7, Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 people in Israel, among them at least 38 children and babies. Many children were left orphaned. The terrorists abducted more than 240 hostages, including at least 32 children, among them a 9-month-old baby, and removed them to Gaza. Another hostage was nine months pregnant at the time of her abduction and is believed to have given birth in captivity. Many adult hostages, including nursing mothers, were separated from their infants and children.

The Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr. 

President of the United States 

The White House 

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW 

Washington, DC 20500 

The Honorable Antony Blinken 

United States Secretary of State 

The State Department 

Washington, DC 20500 

Dear President Biden and Secretary Blinken,  

We write to you to express our profound concern about the effects that Hamas’s terrorism and the war in Gaza are having on children and infants in the region.

If our world can agree on nothing else, surely we can agree that children must be protected from the horrific consequences of terrorism and war; that the endangerment of children, and grave violations of their rights and physical safety, by terrorist attacks and in armed conflict must end immediately; and that it is long past time to stop this cycle of violence and trauma that has ruined the lives of far too many children.

In the atrocities on October 7, Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 people in Israel, among them at least 38 children and babies.  Many children were left orphaned. The terrorists abducted more than 240 hostages, including at least 32 children, among them a 9-month-old baby, and removed them to Gaza.  Many adult hostages, including nursing mothers, were separated from their infants and children.  Another hostage was nine months pregnant at the time of her abduction and is believed to have given birth in captivity. 

One of the hostages, Abigail Edan, was just 3 years old on October 7 when her parents were murdered by Hamas.  She ran to her neighbors’ home for safety, but the terrorists kidnapped that entire family. Abigail’s family has heard nothing about her condition since she was taken and wait in agony for any word about their precious orphaned niece and granddaughter.

While several adult hostages have been released by Hamas, more than 240 persons remain in captivity. The families of hostages have approached us seeking information about the American strategy to secure their loved ones’ release. Regrettably, we lack a clear understanding of the specific actions being taken by the United States to make this a central, overriding and urgent priority. We are particularly interested in understanding the American strategy for ensuring the safe release of both child and adult hostages.

We also share profound concerns about the dire consequences of the last month of aerial bombardment and war in Gaza, during which at least 11,078 Palestinians have been killed, nearly half of them children and babies.  In the past 30 days, it is estimated that more than 4,000 children have been killed in the Gaza Strip and at least 6,360 children have been injured.  Save the Children reported that more children were killed in just over three weeks in Gaza than in all the world’s conflicts combined in the past three years.  At least 2,260 Palestinians in Gaza, including at least 1,270 children, have been reported missing by the United Nations and are presumed to be either trapped under the rubble still awaiting rescue—or dead. 

During this same time, Israeli forces or settlers have killed at least 41 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank.

Of the total 2.2 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, nearly half are under 18 years old.  Many have been lost in the pervasive and ongoing airstrikes on residential buildings and civilian infrastructure. Most are suffering from the “complete siege” restrictions on food, water, fuel, and other basic human needs.  Hundreds of schools have shut down, been destroyed, or otherwise been drastically affected, including at least 29 United Nations run schools hit by airstrikes.  Israel has carried out devastating strikes on five refugee camps inside Gaza, resulting in dozens of civilian casualties, including many children.

Pregnant women, newborns and babies are disproportionately bearing the burden of the war. There are an estimated 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza, with more than 180 women giving birth each day.  These women are unable to access emergency obstetric services and some are forced to give birth in their homes or in overflowing shelters, where sanitation conditions are deteriorating.  CARE International reported mothers are undergoing C-sections without anesthetics.  Premature babies require incubators, breathing machines and infusion pumps, all of which depend on vanishing supplies of electricity. 

Malnutrition was already high in Gaza prior to October and, as access to food and water worsens, mothers are struggling to feed themselves and their children.  The water shortage is reaching a crisis point. Hydration is key for nursing mothers to produce enough milk to feed their babies, and for those who cannot breastfeed, clean water is required to prepare most formula. A spokesperson from the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) recently warned infants might die of dehydration. 

Children in Gaza wounded in airstrikes are faced with life-altering critical injuries. The only survivor of an October 22 airstrike that razed two buildings was a one-year-old, Milissa, who, just days prior to the airstrike had taken her first steps. During the strike, her spine was fractured, and she was paralyzed from the chest down. 

International norms require that all parties to an armed conflict protect children and prevent the commission of grave human rights violations against them, including killing and maiming, abduction and kidnapping, and the denial to them of humanitarian relief and medical access.

We commend your Administration’s commitment to pressing for a major expansion of humanitarian supplies arriving into Gaza and applaud the plan you have worked out with the Israeli government to have daily four-hour pauses, as well as the Israeli government’s commitment to allow in more supplies. While we welcome these developments, we believe the deepening humanitarian disaster risks becoming a catastrophe that undermines the United States’ credibility in the region. We urge an immediate cessation of hostilities against targets with a civilian presence to facilitate the timely evacuation and protection of children and babies.

Moreover, we need a thorough daily accounting of the condition of Palestinian and Israeli children and babies killed, wounded, and traumatized in this conflict. While every effort must be made to secure the release of the hostages, the efforts should also be made by the U.S. to immediate access of humanitarian organizations such as the International Red Cross and Red Crescent to Israeli children abducted by terrorists and still being held in Gaza. Such accountability should guide and help determine U.S. policies and strategies to prioritize the protection, care, and services for children who daily confront unspeakable dangers and loss in this conflict.

Thank you for your time and consideration of this pressing matter. We look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Rep. Jamie Raskin

Rep. James McGovern

Additional signatories

Yossi Alpher is an independent security analyst. He is the former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, a former senior official with the Mossad, and a former IDF intelligence officer. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.

Sometimes you must state the obvious, particularly when the obvious must serve as a moral compass. So here is the obvious: Most of the people who live in the Gaza Strip are civilians. Civilians who are not involved in hostilities directed at Israel, otherwise referred to as “innocent civilians.” 

Duh, you might say. Is that even debatable? Well, it is being debated, and not only by social media keyboard warriors but by elected officials on Capitol Hill. Even by Israel’s president Yitzhak Herzog, an otherwise moderate dove.

Americans for Peace Now (APN) applauds the passage of a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for the release of all hostages held by Hamas and other militants in Gaza, and for urgent and extended humanitarian pauses in fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Significantly, the resolution calls for a "sufficient number of days" to allow humanitarian aid access to civilians in Gaza.

As the war in Gaza continues, and the Israel-Lebanon border heats up, there are also rising tensions in the West Bank, with a shocking increase in settler violence that threatens to destabilize an increasingly volatile situation.

According to the Israeli human rights organization, Yesh Din, in the month following the October 7 terror attack, 163 Palestinians were killed by settlers and Israeli security forces in the West Bank and more than 900 adults and children were forcibly driven from their homes following settler violence. These actions constitute a violation of human rights, threaten to inflame an already dangerous situation, and endanger the possibility of a two-state solution.

The Honorable Antony Blinken
United States Secretary of State
The State Department
Washington, DC 20520

Dear Secretary Blinken,

As strong supporters of the United States-Israel relationship, we watched in horror on October 7 as Hamas mounted a vicious terror attack against Israel, murdering more than 1,400 Israelis. We thank you for your leadership during this difficult time. The conversations you have had with leaders in the Middle East are critical for helping to secure the release of hostages and for addressing the dire and deepening humanitarian crisis. It will also address Israel’s need to ensure that atrocities like those perpetrated by Hamas on October 7 never occur again.

As you continue to engage with our partners and allies in the region, we urge you to always protect the possibility of achieving our ultimate goal – a two-state solution where Israelis and Palestinians live side by side in peace, mutual security, and prosperity. While the world has been focused on Gaza, the situation in the West Bank has also deteriorated rapidly since October 7. Your leadership in realizing a two-state solution is critical and your attention to the crisis in the West Bank is necessary during this conflict.

As National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan rightly stated, it is the responsibility of the Israeli government to “rein in” extremist settlers in the West Bank. We agree with him that “it is totally unacceptable to have extremist settler violence against innocent people in the West Bank.”

Since the Israel-Hamas War began, there has been a growing number of documented incidents in which settlers attack nearby Palestinian communities, at times escorted by Israeli soldiers. According to recent reports, in the month following the October 7 terror attack, at least 185 Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces and settlers in the West Bank. More than 1,100 adults and children were forcibly driven from their homes following settler violence. These actions are a serious violation of basic human rights and endanger the possibility of a two-state solution.

Recent reports from October 28 draw our attention to a disturbing episode in which settlers, accompanied by Israel Defense Forces personnel, attacked residents in the Palestinian community of Susya in the South Hebron Hills. It is our understanding that settlers also threatened the village with an ultimatum to evacuate within 24 hours or face further violence and intimidation. We are profoundly concerned that the forced displacement of Susya would further embolden violent settler attacks and intimidation against the surrounding Palestinian communities. With several of the undersigned members on this letter having seen firsthand the extraordinary levels of deprivation and other challenges faced by the people of Susya, we are particularly disturbed by these developments.

Therefore, we urge you to immediately and strongly convey to the Israeli government its responsibility to uphold the rule of law in the West Bank and protect all civilians under its jurisdiction, while holding perpetrators of vigilante attacks and intimidation to account. The destabilizing consequences of vigilantism and lawless displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank threaten to expand the current war to another dangerous front.

We cannot allow extremist settlers to use this crisis as an opportunity to expand illegal settlements in the West Bank. We echo President Biden’s concern that attacks by “extremist settlers” amount to “pouring gasoline” on the already raging fires in the region.

Instead, it is vital that the United States make every effort to stabilize the West Bank by strengthening the Palestinian Authority (PA). A robust and empowered PA is essential for creating an environment conducive to peace negotiations and social progress. We appreciate your diplomatic initiatives to address this issue, as well as the vital coordination that is being done by the United States Security Coordinator for Israel and the PA. We urge continued efforts to strengthen the PA’s effectiveness, which is vital for the realization of peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians.

As you noted in your testimony to the Senate Appropriations Committee on October 31, the PA is operating under significant resource constraints. Your advocacy for releasing tax revenues underscores the importance of providing the PA with the necessary financial resources needed to stabilize the West Bank. By strengthening the PA, we can enhance its ability to uphold the rule of law, protect civilians, and deter extremist elements in the West Bank.

As the President said on October 19, “the decisions we make today are going to determine the future for decades to come.” Our decisions must keep the meaningful prospects of a two-state solution alive. The prevailing atmosphere of violence and lawlessness in the West Bank undermines the potential for a successful two-state outcome.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Sincerely,

Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-CA)

Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD)

Congresswoman Susan Wild (D-PA)

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