On February 17, 2016, nine American congressmen and Senator Patrick Leahy wrote a letter to the US State Department inquiring about "specific allegations of gross violations of human rights" by the security forces of Egypt and Israel. The letter's signatories wanted the State Department to investigate if the killing of, al-Atrash, among others, constituted a human rights violation.[10] Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in response to the letter said that "IDF soldiers and Israel Police officers protect with their bodies, in a moral manner, themselves and innocent civilians from bloodthirsty terrorists set on killing them.”[11]