It’s been nearly a thousand days since Hamas murdered more than 2,000 people on October 7th, including 46 Americans.
In the six months since his son Itay was returned home for burial, Ruby Chen has been working to heal. But he says there are too many unanswered questions about what happened that day.
Chen is in Washington this week asking members of Congress to open an inquiry into the massacre.
The Israeli government has not yet established its own State Commission of Inquiry, and many hostage families believe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is delaying to avoid political accountability.
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Chen says Congress should get involved because so many Americans were murdered that day. He points to investigations into to the deaths of Americans in Benghazi in 2012 and the Khobar Towers Bombing in Saudi Arabia in 1996.
Scripps News' Alex Miller: What do you want the commission to investigate?
Ruby Chen: What was the reasons that led to Hamas being able to create a war machine? It is in an enclave in Gaza. Where did all of that machinery come from that attacked Israel, including the killing of 46 U.S. citizens? It's not finding that individual that was at the edge and pulled the trigger on those U.S. citizens, but where did that money come from? Who were the people that were in charge? That money came from places that have been well documented, allowing terrorist global financing entities that move that money into Gaza, from places such as Turkey, Kuwait, places in Europe, places in the Middle East.
Miller: What's it like being so many days out from this and not having answers in an official capacity?
Chen: It's very difficult to begin all the rehabilitation, of beginning a new chapter, by having these open questions of 'Who knew what happened, what did they do about it, what did they not do about it?' And those people that were there, what have they done to correct that a similar attack would not happen again, and again kill dozens of U.S. citizens?
Chen acknowledges Israel would need to cooperate with the investigation, but says it’s also important to understand if there was negligence on the part of his own government.
