On October 7, 2023, my son Itay was nineteen, an American-Israeli soldier stationed at Nahal Oz protecting the border, when Hamas terrorists kidnapped and murdered him.They held his remains in Gaza for 760 days — deliberate, unimaginable psychological warfare against my family — before he was finally returned home in November 2025, the last American hostage.
He was my son.He was an American.
Most of his own country never learned his name, or the names of Judy Weinstein, Danielle Waldman or Carol Siman Tov.That is why it was so meaningful that the U.S.Senate unanimously passed a bipartisan resolution, led by Senators Rick Scott and Jacky Rosen, honoring the 46 Americans murdered by Hamas during the October 7 war.
For the first time, their names are written into the official record of the United States Senate.The resolution reaffirms America’s commitment to seek legal justice on behalf of our families, and it will be delivered to each of us by the Secretary of State.Washington is finally stopping to remember.
Families of the fallen will soon gather in the nation’s capital for "Honoring American Victims of Hamas Since October 7," the first time the U.S.government will formally recognize, in one room, its own citizens killed in the October 7 war.
I have advocated for this day because most Americans have no idea their country endured one of the deadliest days of terrorism against its own citizens since September 11.MY SON WAS ONE OF 46 AMERICANS MURDERED BY HAMAS.WE NEED A US INVESTIGATIONI am deeply grateful to Secretary of State Marco Rubio for stepping forward to host this memorial, and to the Howard and Allison Lutnick Foundation for their support.
Together with the Senate’s vote, it tells grieving families something we have waited three years to hear: Washington sees us.These were not foreign casualties in someone else’s war.
They were American sons, daughters and grandparents, murdered by extremists.But what worries me most is this: a resolution ...