Press Releases

Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA), a senior member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and President Emeritus of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, released the following statement:

“On October 7, Hamas launched a brutal terrorist attack on Israel deliberately targeting and slaughtering innocent civilians. That violence must be condemned for the brutal, depraved act it was. No equivocation, no rationalization. The state of Israel is entitled to defend itself and bring the Hamas perpetrators to Justice.

“In its effort to ferret out Hamas terrorists, however, Israel has created a massive humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Two million people are struggling for survival without food, water, medicines, fuel, and shelter. Hospitals have been raided. Patients killed. Premature infants are removed from incubators that lack the electricity to function. Perhaps half the structures in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed. This horror must end. Israel must find a better, safer, more humane way to address the Hamas threat, one that reflects Israel’s deepest values as a democratic society that was founded as a counter to the inhumanity and violence of the Holocaust.

“11,000 civilians are dead. There must be no more. Hamas must stop all offensive operations and release the hostages it holds. All of them. Israel in return must stop the carnage. And out of the ashes, negotiations for a two state solution must begin in earnest. The US government must use all of its influence and leverage to bring a lasting peace to a bleeding, traumatized Middle East.”