Families of Americans killed by Israeli forces and illegal settlers gathered outside the US Capitol alongside lawmakers to demand independent investigations and accountability for what they described as years of unchecked impunity.
The news conference, hosted by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, brought together relatives of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, Sayfollah "Saif" Musallet, Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, Rachel Corrie and Mohammed Ibrahim, a 16-year-old Palestinian American detained in Israel.
Lawmakers, including Rashida Tlaib, Summer Lee, Lateefah Simon, Mark Pocan, Delia Ramirez and Chuy Garcia, also joined the families.
Just over one year ago, Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, a US citizen from my home state of Washington, was killed by the IDF. We still have no independent investigation and no justice.Today, I stood with Ayşenur’s family, my colleagues, and advocates to demand answers and accountability. pic.twitter.com/4tTCmxcqkC
— Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) September 16, 2025
Since 2022, at least nine Americans have been killed by Israeli forces or illegal settlers in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
Among them was Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old Turkish American activist from Washington state, who was shot in the head by an Israeli sniper last September while attending a protest against illegal Israeli settlements in Beita, West Bank.
Jayapal said Eygi was killed while observing a nonviolent protest.
"My colleagues and I pushed over and over again for that accountability with absolutely no forward movement, no transparency, no insistence that the United States protect, at a minimum, our own citizens against Israeli government forces," she said.
She added that despite promises from US officials, including Ambassador Mike Huckabee, "the Trump administration is continuing to allow US citizens to be killed with impunity, even as the Israeli government commits genocide of Palestinians in Gaza."
Eygi’s sister, Ozden Bennett, accused Washington of shielding Israel.
"Why are some American lives worth fighting for while others are not?" she asked.
"What you see here is the impact of the impunity our government grants to Israel."
Lawmakers slam US silence
Rep. Rashida Tlaib called the lack of investigations "despicable."
"When Americans are killed abroad, it's standard procedure for our government to open an investigation, but when murderers wear Israeli uniforms, there's complete silence," she said.
Garcia criticised ongoing arms transfers.
"We cannot send weapons to a regime that bombs schools and hospitals but cannot investigate the deaths of 10 US citizens," he said.
Pocan described settler violence in the occupied West Bank as "another form of the genocide we’re seeing in Gaza."
He also highlighted the case of Mohammed Ibrahim, a 16-year-old American held in Israel’s Ofer prison.
Relatives say he has been denied food and medical care.
"No family should have to beg their government for justice," Pocan said.
Ibrahim, from Florida, was arrested in February while visiting relatives in the occupied West Bank and spent his 16th birthday behind bars in March.
He has been held for seven months without contact with his parents.
He was charged with throwing stones at illegal settlers, an accusation his family denies.
"We know from the US Embassy that his health is very bad," his uncle, Zeyad Kadur, told Anadolu agency.
He said Ibrahim contracted scabies more than three months ago and had lost over 30 pounds without treatment.
"The last time we saw Mohammad was him being blindfolded, handcuffed and dragged out of the house in front of his mom and dad by 25 armed soldiers," he said.
Kadur said efforts to reach US officials have gone unanswered.
"We reached out to the State Department here in the United States. They’ve ignored us.
They haven’t taken our calls. They haven’t responded to our emails," he said.
He voiced frustration with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also from Florida.
"They got 1,500 Israeli Americans on private planes and flown back to Florida," he said, referring to an evacuation organised by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
"He hasn’t responded to one call or one email about one kid, a child from Florida from his home state."
More than 100 advocacy groups, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Jewish Voice for Peace Action, recently urged Rubio to intervene, calling Ibrahim "an American child unjustly imprisoned without trial."
CAIR is calling on President Trump to secure the release of Mohammed Zaher Ibrahim, a 16-year-old Palestinian American who has been illegally detained by Israel for more than six months without trial after allegedly throwing rocks—accusations his family denies pic.twitter.com/GtPlbVdY0K
— TRT World (@trtworld) August 27, 2025
Decades of struggle for justice
Cindy Corrie, whose daughter Rachel was killed in 2003 while trying to block an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza, said families have faced silence for decades.
"If there had been real consequences in Israel for Rachel’s killing and for any of the killings that followed, perhaps the other families here today would not have had to make this trip," she said.
Corrie added: "Our hearts, every day we wake up to the news, are with the people in Gaza, those that we've met and those we haven't, knowing how much we and Rachel love them.
I just need them to know that they're in our hearts every single day, and this all has to stop."
 
Other relatives also shared stories.
Musallet, 20, was beaten to death by settlers in July while defending his family’s land in the occupied West Bank.
Abdel Jabbar, 17, from Louisiana, was shot dead last January while driving.
"It doesn't matter where you're from, whatever citizenship you hold, if you are Palestinian, you are a target," his father said.
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Source: TRT