Back to Bill Details

HRES 951 IHEH

Whereas more than 4,000 rockets and mortar shells have been fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip by Hamas and other terrorist organizations since Israeli forces withdrew from there in 2005;

Whereas, since January 1, 2008, terrorists have fired more than 420nearly a thousand rockets and mortar shells into Israel;

Whereas the near-daily rocket fire has been targeted primarily and intentionally at civilian communities in Israel, such as Sderot and Ashkelon, making life in such areas agonizing;

Whereas the terrorist rockets have hit homes, schools, buildings, roads, power lines, and other such infrastructure in Israel;

Whereas these unprovoked rocket and mortar attacks have forced Israel to suffer dozens of casualties,murdered over a dozen Israelis, inflicted hundreds of shock victims,casualties, produced thousands of traumatizedcases of shock and post-traumatic stress, especially among children, and caused severe disruption of daily life;

Whereas military intelligence reports indicate that the rockets used in thethese deliberate cross-border rocket and mortar attacks on Israel are made in Irancivilian populations constitute a blatant violation of human rights and often smuggled into Gaza through Egypt;international law;

Whereas Haaretz has reported that no fewer than 1,650 rocketWhereas those responsible for launching rocket attacks against Israel routinely embed their production facilities and 6,000 bombs, as welllaunch sites amongst the Palestinian civilian population, utilizing them as millionshuman shields;

Whereas intentionally targeting civilian populations and the use of bullets for light weaponshuman shields violates international humanitarian and tonhuman rights law;

Whereas numerous reports have cited the copious amounts of potassium forsophisticated weapons, small arms, and weapons manufacturing bombs, werematerials that have been smuggled into Gaza through Egypt;

Whereas public reports have cited the role of Iran and Syria in 2007 alone; andproviding material support and training to those carrying out rocket and other terrorist attacks from Gaza;

WhereasWhereas public reports have referenced the launchingincreased flow of ammunition, explosives, and higher-grade weapons into the Gaza Strip as a result of Hamas' breach of the 12-kilometer security fence separating Gaza from Egyptian Sinai on January 23, 2008;

Whereas the fielding and use of longer-range rockets by Hamas and other terrorist organizations to reach larger Israeli cities represents a dangerous expansion of the organizations' offensive capabilities and an escalation of the terrorist attacks on Israel;

Whereas the inadvertent inflicting of civilian casualties as a result of defensive military operations aimed at military targets, while deeply regrettable, is made possible largely by technical expertise providnot at all morally equivalent to the deliberate targeting of civilian populations as practiced by Hamas and other Gaza-based terrorist groups; and

Whereas the Iraniansituation in the Gaza Strip remains a threat to international security and Syrian Governmentsregional stability: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives--

(1) condemns, in the strongest possible terms,strongly condemns--

(A) Hamas, which controls Gaza, and other Palestinian terrorist organizations for the Iranian-enabled ongoing rocket attacks on Israeli civilians; and continued human rights violations;

(2 (B) state sponsors of terror, such as Iran and Syria, for enabling Palestinian terrorist organizations to carry out attacks against innocent Israeli civilians; and

(C) the use of innocent Palestinian civilians as human shields by those who carry out rocket and other attacks;

(2) expresses condolences to the families of the innocent victims on both sides of the conflict;

(3) supports the sovereign right of the Government of Israel to defend its territory against attacks;

(4) expresses sympathy and stop the rocket attacks on its citizens;upport(3) recognizes the difficult balance Israel faces as the competing pressures of being the primary supplier of numerous necessities for Palestinian civilians, such as fuel, electricity, and medicine, even while rockets are being fired at Israel from Palestinian areas;innocent(4) supports Palestinian civilians who Hamas and reject all forms of terrorism, desiring and desire to live in peace with their Israeli neighbors; but who continue to be utilized(5) places responsibility for launching the rocket attacks on Hamas and other terrorist organizations, such as Islamic Jihad, in Gaza;human shields by terrorist organizations;

(6) regards these(5) considers rocket attacks against Israel and the fostering of terrorism in the Palestinian territories as direct hindranceand serious impediments to the peace process iachievement of Israeli-Palestinian peace;

(6) calls on the region;President to--

(7) recognizes that(A) direct the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations to introduce a resolution within the United Nations Security Council condemning Palestinian rocket and other attacks against Israel would not be possible without the material support ofinnocent Israeli civilians; and

(B) direct the GovernmentsSecretary of IranState to raise this issue in all applicable bilateral and Syria;international fora;

(8(7) calls on all nations, including Egypt, to take affirmative, transparent, verifiable steps to stop the flow of rocketresponsible countries and other terrorism-enabling materials (including human resources) toUnited States allies in the Middle East to officially and publicly condemn Palestinian territories; androcket attacks and other terrorist actions against Israel; and

(9(8) reaffirms the strong and unyielding friendship between the gGovernments and the people of Israel and the United States.