American families of Oct 7 victims call for US congressional investigation

The father of an Israeli-American soldier killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre is calling on the U.S. Congress to establish an investigative commission into the attack, saying families have waited nearly three years for answers about how it happened.

Ruby Chen, father of Israeli-American soldier Itay Chen, made the appeal following a memorial service held by the US State Department at its headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday for the 46 American citizens killed and wounded during the Hamas massacre.

Chen pointed to individuals allegedly involved in planning and carrying out the attack who are living freely in Turkey and Qatar, countries with which the U.S. maintains close military, diplomatic and economic relationships. He said Washington should use its leverage with the two countries to bring those responsible to justice.

Speaking to The Jerusalem Post following the event, Chen criticized the Israeli government for not establishing a state commission of inquiry and suggested that the United States could take the lead in investigating the attack.

"Unfortunately, the Israeli government has not seen fit to establish a state commission of inquiry. Maybe the time has come for the United States, for the U.S. Congress, to establish an investigative commission for the American victims."

"For a thousand days now, the families have been waiting to understand not just what happened, but how it happened," he said, adding that the U.S. government has conducted official investigations into past incidents in which large numbers of American citizens lost their lives.

Chen’s call for accountability was echoed by other family members during an emotional meeting with senior officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and his wife, Allison, in the State Department’s Benjamin Franklin Room on Wednesday morning.

Chen told the Post that Admiral Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), attended the meeting and said he continued to wear Itay’s military dog tag, which Chen had given him at his son’s funeral in November 2025.

Lutnick, who lost his brother Gary and 658 employees of the financial services company he led at the time in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, had also played an important role in ensuring that the families of slain hostages received official recognition, Chen said.

"I think today we can say that we had a small comfort," Chen said.

Abbey Onn, an American-Israeli whose relatives Carmela Dan and her granddaughter Noya Dan were murdered in Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, also welcomed the sentiments expressed by the American officials.

"It was really exciting,” she said. “I didn't know what to expect, and I thought it would be very formal, and it really came from the heart of Secretary Lutnick and his wife.”

"They say it's important that we remember everyone, every name, every person, every soul. And that's our job now, to remember and to live."

Onn said the families recognized the shared experience of terrorism in Israel and the United States.

"Mainly it was the understanding that we, as Israel and America, have faced two of the worst terror attacks in the last 25 years," she said. "Our fight is against terror, and our fight is for life."

She also criticized Israel’s national response to the Oct. 7 anniversary, saying the lack of a formal national commemoration can intensify the pain experienced by survivors.

"Look, we just had October 7,” she said. “There was not a national acknowledgment of the day. There was a civic acknowledgment of the day. It wasn't national. There was no siren. There was no siren. We went to school. We went to work. It wasn't the appropriate level of respect for the day, in my opinion."

"I think that we have to work harder as a country to accept that this was an awful tragedy that we can't forget," she said.

Onn also echoed the families’ calls for an official investigation and a memorial in the U.S. capital.

"They want a state inquiry. They want a memorial in DC," she said. "The U.S. government [needs] to understand how October 7 happened and how to make sure that it never happens again.”