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Washington, D.C. – House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul spoke on the House floor in support of his resolution, H.Res 771, Resolution Standing with Israel as it defends itself against the barbaric war launched by Hamas and other terrorists, which overwhelmingly passed the House and condemns Hamas’ unprovoked, heinous attacks against the state of Israel and the efforts of Iran to support terror groups in the region.

“This declaration calling on the annihilation of the Jewish state must be confronted with zero equivocation. That is why I worked with my good friend, Ranking Member Meeks, to introduce this bipartisan resolution.”


WATCH HERE.

– Remarks as delivered –

Mr. Speaker,

On Saturday, October 7, Israelis awoke to rockets raining down on them from Gaza and gunmen broke down their doors and invaded their homes.

Hamas terrorists killed babies and toddlers; they killed elderly grandmothers and grandfathers; they killed moms and dads; they killed teenage kids in their homes – no one was spared from their brutality.

Following WWII, my father’s war, I never believed the world would bear witness to the slaughter of the Jewish people like we have seen at the bloody hands of Hamas.

October 7 was the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

Additionally, Hamas is holding 220 hostages, including Americans. This is a flier of a mother and son taken hostage by Hamas. #BringThemHomeNow. They are using them as human shields and threatening to execute them. They must all be released, unconditionally. Now.

This is one of the darkest moments in the history of the state of Israel.

I was in one of the kibbutzes right on the border of Gaza last year meeting with members of the community. I saw their daycare center.

That very same kibbutz was overrun by 70 Hamas terrorists. Many of the residents I met were slaughtered. But most viciously, the babies and the children I visited in the daycare center were slaughtered, shot to death, beheaded, and burned alive.

When the press says it didn’t happen, they are just wrong.

It did, because I’ve seen the pictures of the burned babies and the decapitated children and the blood that you see here in the babies’ cribs. For God sakes, what is going on in this world today? In one of the most horrific stories to emerge, a pregnant woman had her baby cut out in front of her very eyes, as they murdered her baby before her, and before they shot her in the head.

Simply put, Mr. Speaker, they are monsters.

At a music festival to celebrate peace – chaos, gunfire and explosions ripped through the air – piercing hundreds of bodies with bullets and shrapnel.

And while the attendees attempted to flee the area, gunmen surrounded them from every direction.

In total, 260 attendees assembled in peace to enjoy music were massacred.

Among other atrocities we have heard reported include: Children with their hands bound, shot in the back of the head execution-style; women who were raped and slaughtered, one of whom was dragged through the streets of Gaza. Families, including babies and young children [who] were burned alive in front of their parents. The beheading of Israeli soldiers, and parents gunned down as they shielded their children before the onslaught of gunfire.

This is sheer terror, it’s evil, and it cannot stand in this world.

We are witnessing, in real time, Hamas carry out their covenant that outlines their goal of eradicating Israel through jihad.

In fact, their covenant states, “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”

And they specifically discuss jihad, noting, “The day the enemies usurp part of Moslem land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Moslem. In the face of the Jews’ usurpation, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised.” Mr. Speaker, it was indeed raised on October 7.

To be completely clear, despite repeated efforts by Israel to secure peace, the Hamas Covenant states, “[Peace] initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement… There is no solution [for] the Palestinian problem except by Jihad.”

This declaration calling on the annihilation of the Jewish state must be confronted with zero equivocation.

That is why I worked with my good friend, Ranking Member Meeks, to introduce this bipartisan resolution.

It condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the atrocities of Hamas and reiterates Israel’s right to defend herself, along with America’s unwavering support for the state of Israel.

All roads lead to Iran. Their fingerprints are all over this attack.

They have consistently funded Hamas and other Palestinian groups to the tune of 100 million dollars per year.

This resolution condemns Hamas and Iran for its support for terrorist groups, such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, while also calling for all sanctions on Iran to be fully enforced.

So, I urge all my colleagues to support this important resolution. It will send a clear message across the world that terrorists and their sponsors will be held to account for their atrocities, their crimes against humanity, their crimes of genocide.

On December 7, 1941, in response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt said it was “a date which will live in infamy.”

So, too, will October 7, 2023.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I urge support and I reserve the balance of my time.

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