In their own words: What it's like in a 'chaos' Congress and why these lawmakers keep coming back

WASHINGTON (AP) — Polarizing. Challenging. A lot of wasted time.

That’s how six lawmakers described what it is like being in the U.S. House — a particularly tumultuous period in American history that has brought governing to a standstill, placed their lives in danger and raised fundamental questions about what it means to be a representative in a divided democracy.

And yet, they keep at it, running for reelection.

The Associated Press sat down separately with lawmakers, three Republicans and three Democrats, to hear what it’s like on Capitol Hill and what they — and Americans — can do to make it better. All hail from safe districts and are expected to easily win another term.

Here’s who they are, why they first ran for office and why they keep coming back.

Dusty Johnson is the rare lawmaker whose sprawling district makes up an entire state, South Dakota. He ran for office in 2018 because he thought there were “too many jerks” in Congress and he would be better.

Nicole Malliotakis said that as the daughter of a Cuban mother and Greek father, her background made her born for politics. She ran in 2020 to provide a “counter view” as a Republican from New York City, representing Brooklyn and Staten Island.

Mark Amodei from northern Nevada, or “original Nevada,” as he calls it, has been in office since 2011. He said it’s his responsibility to do public service and give back to the state where his family has lived for generations.

Chrissy Houlahan, an Air Force veteran, comes from the western Philadelphia region known as “the mushroom capital of the world.” The daughter of a Holocaust survivor and mother of a queer daughter, she decided to run for office in 2018 after seeing them in tears after Donald Trump’s 2016 election.

Veronica Escobar, from the border city of El Paso, Texas, ran for office to work for her community but also to tell the “El Paso story” and counter some of the “negative narratives” about immigrants. She won election in 2018.

Maxwell Frost, the youngest member of Congress, said his initial response to running for office was “Hell, no!” But he came to realize his work as the national organizer at March for Our Lives after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, could carry over into Congress. He first won office in 2022.

“Chaos is honestly the word I would use to describe the totality of the Congress," Frost said. "A lot of wasted time.”

“You have your ups and downs,” said Malliotakis.

Almost all of them have been in office during two presidential impeachments, two historic House speaker fights, the COVID closures and the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

“All of the things that you could not expect have happened have, have happened,” Houlahan said. This year in particular has been frustrating “and in some cases super demoralizing because, you know, you’re not here to not do things.”

Amodei said, “I think it’s an asset if you know how to play well with others. And if you don’t play well with others, then this is a nasty place to be.”

Escobar, who was among the lawmakers trapped in the House gallery on Jan. 6, 2021, said: “I will tell you, I love my job. I’m grateful for my job. It’s a tough job.”

“I struggle with that a lot,” said Houlahan.

Houlahan said the House’s 435 members operate like “independent contractors,” with small staffs and each office’s own personality. After a career in the military, as a small business entrepreneur and as a high school chemistry teacher, she said, “I’ve never seen anything like the organizational structure that is here.”

“Some of those offices, their mission is chaos, you know, and some of those offices, their mission is constructive,” Houlahan said.

Johnson said it’s the wrong question to be asking.

“It’s garbage in, garbage out,” he said.

“And if the people of America are going to continue to elect people who use fear and anger to motivate, we’re going to continue to find it more difficult than it should be to get things done in Congress,” he said.

Frost thinks unless there are institutional reforms — campaign finance changes and ending the Senate’s filibuster — “we’re going to be caught in this generational cycle of taking a few steps forward and a few steps backwards.”

Malliotakis expects it’s going to be this way for a while.

“The far right does its thing, the far left does its thing, and then everyone else in the middle really comes together to actually govern,” she said.

“Congress is a reflection of what’s happening in America,” Escobar said.

“We have families that can no longer talk to one another about politics or about government,” she said. “We are drifting so far away from what is so good about our country and our communities, and Congress has a role in fixing that. ... But we in our country have to do more of that, as well.”

Malliotakis said it would help if Americans paid more attention to what their representatives were “actually doing when they’re in Washington.”

“So many people complain about issues and then they vote for the same members over and over,” she said.

Johnson suggests Americans list characteristics they would seek in a spouse, a boss, a pastor or child and use them when electing a representative.

“Congress can’t fix Congress,” he said. “The American people can fix Congress.”

“We’ve all gotten death threats,” Malliotakis said. “Obviously, it is a polarizing time right now.”

Escobar said she has stopped holding large town hall gatherings over concerns of gun violence.

“I worry that any time I’m gathered with my constituents that one of my constituents could get hurt,” she said. “And I worry that my presence at a large gathering could put somebody else’s safety at risk.”

Houlahan said the risks of violence come with the job.

“This is a job where we are in danger,” she said. “It’s awful that we’re in that place, and we as leaders should be decrying that and not encouraging that.”

She said, “But it is absolutely my expectation that this is not a safe job.”

Frost said the threats he receives as a member of Congress are not new to him. “And I think it just shows, of course, the tone and this kind of violent culture that exists within American politics.”

All said getting stuff done — even small wins. Especially the small wins, in fact, because that’s about all Congress can accomplish these days.

“There’s no other feeling like it,” said Frost.

He described standing at the White House for the launch of the first-ever Office of Gun Violence Prevention. And the “joy” he felt when receiving word that the administration would approve a second passport office in Florida, something constituents had been demanding since before he came to Congress.

Amodei mentioned work he’s done toward a monument for Vietnam War helicopter pilots at Arlington National Cemetery. “That’s neat.”

“The best days are days when you actually feel like you took a vote of consequence,” Johnson said, whether it’s certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election or “making sure that we don’t have any of these silly, stupid dumpster fires.”

“My role as a legislator is to find a solution,” Escobar said. “It may not be the perfect solution.... I have constituents who get mad at me for saying that, but progress is incremental.”

“I commute about 5,000 miles a week,” Amodei said.

But what’s “worse is when you feel like you’re here and your time is being taken for granted,” he said.

“I keep coming back because it’s work that matters,” Johnson said.

“I do love what I do,” Malliotakis said, adding she wants to do "great work for our constituents.”

Houlahan said she envisions a future where Congress turns a corner.

“I stay because I’m hoping that we will find ourselves again," she said. "And I hope that I can be part of it.”

Frost said, “If we step away from our civic power, our opposition is more than happy to step into it for us.”

“The way this institution works should reflect the wants and needs of the people. And so ... that’s why we've got to keep coming back.”

“Anybody who would act like Congress doesn’t matter, I think, is naive to the point of being a bad citizen,” Johnson said. “The reality is that every single one, we cast votes that bend the trajectory of this country.”

Amodei said, “Well, fair question, but it’s like, well, do you think Social Security is important if you’re over 65? Do you think Medicare is important?... Do you think that our borders are important?”

He said he gets the “uber-cynics” who say, “You people are such dysfunctional jerks that we should just get rid of all of you. It’s like, okay, so tell me what your plan is.”

“Everything we do here in Washington, D.C., in Congress, impacts every single citizen in this great country,” Escobar said.

Mascaro is the AP congressional correspondent. Pesoli is an AP videojournalist.

FILE - Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch, speaks at the Capitol in Washington, Oct. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

FILE - Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., is pictured, Jan. 17, 2023, at the state Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

FILE - Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., listens during a panel discussion in Washington, Jan. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades, File)

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-NY, speaking in an interview with The Associated Press about working in the 118th Congress, on June 26, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mike Pesoli)

Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., speaks in an interview with The Associated Press about the highs and lows of working in Congress, on June 26, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Mike Pesoli)

FILE - Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, is pictured in the spin room after a presidential debate, Sept. 10, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

Israel's military said it detained 100 suspected Hamas militants in a raid on a hospital in northern Gaza over the weekend, while its warplanes on Monday sent plumes of smoke rising over the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre.

Israeli forces raided Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya on Friday, detaining 44 male staff, according to the World Health Organization. Palestinian medical officials said the hospital, which was treating some 200 patients, was heavily damaged in the raid.

Israel has raided several hospitals in Gaza over the course of the yearlong war, saying Hamas and other militants use them for military purposes. Palestinian medical officials deny those allegations and accuse the military of recklessly endangering civilians.

The Israeli military has called on Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza, where it has been waging a large offensive for more than three weeks. The U.N. said earlier this month at least 400,000 people are still in northern Gaza and hunger is rampant as the amount of humanitarian aid reaching the north has plummeted over the past month.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 43,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not differentiate between militants and civilians, but say more than a half were women and children. The Israel-Hamas war began after Hamas-led militants on Oct. 7, 2023, blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed in, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry says the total toll over the past year there is over 2,600 killed and 12,200 wounded. The fighting in Lebanon has driven 1.2 million people from their homes, including more than 400,000 children, according to the United Nations children’s agency. Israeli strikes have killed much of Hezbollah’s top leadership since fighting ramped up in September.

Here’s the latest:

JERUSALEM — Israel’s Defense Ministry said Monday it has signed a $500 million deal to begin production of a laser interception system that can strike down incoming rockets, missiles and drones.

The Iron Beam will be produced by two Israeli companies and is expected to be ready in a year’s time, the ministry said.

Israel already has an elaborate, multilayered aerial defense system that relies on interceptors to strike down incoming missile fire and drones. But Israel has said the Iron Beam system will be a game changer because it would be much cheaper to operate than existing systems. It is expected to be operational within a year

The aerial defense array includes the Iron Dome, which intercepts short range missiles and drones, David’s Sling, which intercepts medium-range missiles, and The Arrow, which intercepts long-range ballistic missiles.

“The Iron Beam will complement the Iron Dome, and the combination of laser and missile interception will further strengthen our defense systems against rockets, missiles, UAVs, cruise missiles, and additional threats,” the ministry said.

The vast majority of missiles and drones fired at Israel during the ongoing Mideast wars have been intercepted. However, some have made it through and drones have become a particular challenge to shoot down.

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported Monday that 38 people were killed and 124 wounded over the past 24 hours, bringing the total toll from a year of conflict between Hezbollah and Israel to 2,710 killed and 12,592 wounded. One quarter of those killed were women and children.

The highest number of casualties has been recorded in the South province, followed by Nabatiyeh, the Baalbeck region and Bekaa Valley.

The health ministry reported that over the past year, 2,041 men have been killed and 9,881 wounded. Women account for 532 fatalities and 2,351 injuries, while 157 children have been killed and 1,129 injured.

In the health care sector, the ministry said that 168 health workers have been killed, 232 wounded and 239 medical vehicles damaged since Oct. 8. Additionally, 79 medical and ambulatory centers have been affected, along with 38 hospitals.

On Monday, intense airstrikes have continued to pummel various villages across South Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. In one case, two Israeli strikes killed six members of a single family in the town of Bodai in the Baalbeck province, according to the state-run National News Agency.

JERUSALEM — An airstrike on a street in central Gaza’s Nuseirat Refugee Camp killed 10 people and injured 20 others Monday, according to Palestinian health officials and Associated Press journalists.

The dead and injured were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah, where they were counted by AP staff there.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

The latest deadly strike comes as Israeli forces intensify their operations across northern Gaza.

The war erupted on Oct. 7. last year when Hamas militants from Gaza stormed southern Israel and killed some 1, 200 people. Israel responded by bombarding and invading the enclave, killing over 43, 000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry’s tally does not distinguish between combatants and civilians but more than half of the dead are said to be women and children

JERUSALEM — Israel’s government said it would continue its discussion with international mediators about a potential cease-fire deal in its war with Hamas, as the head of the Mossad spy agency returned from Qatar on Monday after taking part in the latest round of in-person talks.

David Barnea met with the head of the CIA, Bill Burns, and the Prime Minister of Qatar in Doha, Israel’s prime minister’s office said in a brief statement.

“In the coming days, the discussions between the mediators and with Hamas will continue to examine the feasibility of talks and the continuation of attempts to advance a deal,” the statement said.

Washington and Qatar have been key mediators in the stalled negotiations between Israel and Hamas. Many of the militant group’s leaders are based in the Qatari capital.

The new round of talks was announced by the U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week.

Neither Hamas nor Israel has shown any sign of softening their demands since the negotiations sputtered to a halt over the summer.

JERUSALEM — Israel’s parliament is scheduled to vote Monday on a pair of bills that would effectively sever ties with the U.N. agency responsible for distributing aid in Gaza, strip it of legal immunities and restrict its ability to support Palestinians in east Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Israel accuses the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, of turning a blind eye to Hamas militants it says have infiltrated its staff, including a small number of its 13,000 employees in Gaza who participated in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel. The agency denies it knowingly aids armed groups and says it acts quickly to purge any suspected militants from its ranks.

The bills risk crippling humanitarian aid distribution in the Gaza Strip, at a time the United States is pressing Israel to allow in more food and other supplies. More than 1.9 million Palestinians are displaced from their homes and Gaza faces widespread shortages of food, water and medicine.

The bills, which do not include provisions for alternative organizations to oversee its work, have been strongly criticized by international aid groups and a handful of Israel’s Western allies.

UNITED NATIONS — Iran’s foreign minister said in a letter requesting an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that his country reserves the right to respond to Israel’s recent attacks “at the appropriate time.”

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused Israel of violating Iran’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and “a flagrant breach of international law and the United Nations Charter,” which prohibits the use of force against any U.N. member nation.

Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon called Iran’s request “another attempt by Iran to harm us, this time in the diplomatic arena.”

“We will stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself,” he said in a statement, stressing that the Israeli attack was in response to an Iranian attack on Oct. 1.

The Security Council scheduled a meeting Monday afternoon at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT) at Iran’s request, which was supported by Russia, China and Algeria, the Arab representative on the U.N.’s most powerful body.

Araghchi urged the Security Council and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in the letter obtained by The Associated Press “to take a firm stance and condemn the Israeli regime for committing these acts of aggression strongly and unequivocally.”

Israel’s airstrikes early Saturday followed Iran’s launch of at least 180 missiles into Israel on Oct. 1. The Iranian airstrikes were in retaliation for devastating blows Israel landed against Iran’s ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.

JERUSALEM — Israel is discussing an Egyptian cease-fire proposal that would see four hostages released in exchange for a two-day halt to the fighting in Gaza, an Israel official said Monday.

The official said the discussions were both internal and with Egyptian officials. “We are examining every possible option to advance a deal,” the official said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed enthusiasm for the deal in a meeting with his Likud party on Monday, according to another official.

The official, who attended the meeting, said Netanyahu told lawmakers that he would immediately take the Egyptian proposal. He quoted Netanyahu as saying, "I am ready, even now.”

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations about the proposal with the media.

Hamas has yet to formally respond to the plan.

-- By Tia Goldenberg

BEIRUT — Successive Israeli airstrikes have pummeled the southern port city of Tyre in Lebanon following an evacuation warning from the Israeli military for parts of the city, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported.

Footage aired by local media and the Lebanese Civil Defense showed thick plumes of smoke rising against the Mediterranean skyline, with fires and widespread destruction of residential buildings. No casualties have been reported immediately.

Following the Israeli evacuation warning, Lebanese Civil Defense teams patrolled the city with loudspeakers, urging residents to leave the area immediately.

An Arabic-speaking spokesperson for the Israeli army, Avichay Adraee, said in a post on X that Israel attacked Hezbollah targets in Tyre, including “weapons and anti-tank missile depots, military buildings and reconnaissance sites of various Hezbollah military units, including the Aziz unit.”

The Aziz unit is one of Hezbollah’s three military units and is responsible for the western sector in southern Lebanon. The Israeli army accused Hezbollah of launching operations from the Tyre area into Israeli territory.

CAIRO — Egypt’s president on Monday called for coordinated international efforts to establish a cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon, a day after he proposed a two-day cease-fire between Hamas and Israel.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi’s comments came in a meeting in Cairo with Manfred Weber, the chairman of the European People’s Party, the largest political group in the European Parliament.

“The president stressed the need for all international parties, including the European Union, to combine efforts to push hard for … a cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon,” el-Sissi’s office said in a statement. He also called for Israel to halt raids in the occupied West Bank, and allow unfettered and immediate delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

El-Sissi told reporters Sunday that Egypt, a key mediator between Hamas and Israel, has proposed a two-day cease-fire during which four hostages held in Gaza would be freed.

He said the proposal, which aims to jumpstart the stalled negotiations, also includes the release of some Palestinian prisoners, the delivery of humanitarian aid to besieged Gaza and negotiations on making the cease-fire permanent.

Global oil prices are falling sharply Monday after a retaliatory strike by Israel over the weekend targeted Iranian military sites rather than its energy infrastructure as had been feared.

Prices for crude spiked globally on Oct. 2, after Iran fired nearly 200 missiles into Israel, part of a series of rapidly escalating attacks between Israel and Iran and its Arab allies that threatened to push the Middle East closer to a regionwide war.

Iran is the world’s seventh largest oil producer, but if the conflict in the Middle East were to spread, it could drag in some of the world’s largest energy producers. The United States is the world’s largest producer of crude.

On Monday, the price of benchmark U.S. crude and Brent crude, the international benchmark, tumbled 6%.

The Israeli military said its aircraft targeted facilities that Iran used to make the missiles fired at Israel as well as surface-to-air missile sites. There was no indication that Iran’s oil or nuclear sites were hit.

MOSCOW — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday that Moscow has been doing all it can to prevent the further escalation after Israeli strikes on Iran.

Lavrov said that “we are doing everything possible to help end the escalation and defuse the situation.”

“Of course, Israel’s strikes on Iran, which are presented as a response and that now the response has happened, we are even, no actions needed, is an uneasy situation,” he said. “But we hope that the (U.N.) Security Council will be able somehow to help calm the situation.”

He noted that “at this stage, the worst-case scenario has been avoided” for now, but added that “there are someone who want to heat the flame up to the extent when the U.S. get involved.”

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said it detained 100 suspected Hamas militants in a raid on a hospital in northern Gaza over the weekend.

Israeli forces raided Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya on Friday, detaining 44 male staff, according to the World Health Organization. Palestinian medical officials said the hospital, which was treating some 200 patients, was heavily damaged in the raid.

Israel has raided several hospitals in Gaza over the course of the yearlong war, saying Hamas and other militants use them for military purposes. Palestinian medical officials deny those allegations and accuse the military of recklessly endangering civilians.

An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with regulations, said there was heavy fighting around Kamal Adwan Hospital, though not inside it, and that weapons were found inside the facility.

The official said medical staff were detained and searched because some of the militants had disguised themselves as medics. The official said the military had helped international organizations relocate 88 patients and medical staff to other hospitals in the weeks leading up to the raid, and that during the raid itself, troops had brought 30,000 liters of fuel and medical supplies from international organizations to help keep the facility running.

The Israeli military has called on Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza, where it has been waging a large offensive for more than three weeks.

The UN said earlier this month at least 400,000 people are still in northern Gaza and hunger is rampant as the amount of humanitarian aid reaching the north has plummeted over the past month.

— By Melanie Lidman

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The head of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard made his first public comments Monday after Israel’s weekend attack on the country.

Gen. Hossein Salami, in a condolence message to Iran’s regular military, called Israel’s strike “illegitimate and illegal.” Four soldiers in Iran’s air defense network were killed in the attack on Saturday, as was one civilian, Iranian state media say.

The attack was “a sign of miscalculation and the inability” of Israel on the battlefield with Iranian-backed militants “particularly in Gaza and Lebanon.”

The “bitter consequences will be beyond the imagination of the occupiers,” Salami added, referring to Israel.

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq has submitted a memorandum of protest to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the U.N. Security Council saying Israel violated its airspace in carrying out its attack on Iran over the weekend, the Iraqi prime minister’s office said in a statement.

The statement said that Israeli “aggressor aircraft violated Iraq’s airspace and sovereignty and used Iraqi airspace to carry out the attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran on Oct. 26.”

It added that Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani had directed Iraq’s foreign minister to discuss the matter with the United States. The two countries recently reached an agreement to begin winding down the mission of a U.S.-led coalition formed to fight the Islamic State militant group and to withdraw many of the U.S. troops who remain in the country.

On Sunday, the Iran-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah issued a statement accusing the U.S. of coordinating with Israel to use Iraqi airspace to launch the attack on Iran and threatening retaliation against U.S. forces.

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting Monday afternoon at Iran’s request on Israel’s air strikes against the country.

Switzerland, which holds the council’s rotating presidency, announced the meeting on Sunday and said the Iranian request was supported by Russia, China and Algeria, the Arab representative on the council.

The social platform X has suspended a new account on behalf of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that posted messages in Hebrew.

The account was suspended early Monday with a brief note appended to it saying: “X suspends accounts which violate the X Rules.” It wasn’t immediately clear what the violation was. The Elon Musk-owned social media company did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

The move came after Israel openly attacked Iran for the first time this weekend. Khamenei said in a speech on Sunday that Israel’s strikes — in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack this month — “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed,” while stopping short of calling for retaliation.

The X account opened Sunday with a message in Hebrew reading: “In the name of God, the most merciful,” a standard Islamic greeting.

Khamenei’s office has maintained multiple accounts for the 85-year-old supreme leader on X for years and has sent messages in a variety of languages in the past.

A second message corresponded to a speech Khamenei gave on Sunday and was sent on his English account as: “Zionists are making a miscalculation with respect to Iran. They don’t know Iran. They still haven’t been able to correctly understand the power, initiative, and determination of the Iranian people.” The message referred to Israel’s attack Saturday on Iran.

This isn’t the first time Khamenei has seen a suspension or removal from social media. In February, Meta removed Facebook and Instagram accounts for the supreme leader over his support of the militant group Hamas after its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

Social media platforms like X and Facebook have been blocked in Iran for years, requiring Iranians to use virtual private networks to access them.

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian says his country will respond to Israel “appropriately," after Israel openly attacked Iranian military sites for the first time this weekend.

“We are not seeking war, but we will defend the rights of our nation and country and will respond appropriately to the Zionist regime’s aggression,” Pezeshkian was quoted by state TV on Sunday as saying.

Pezeshkian also said the U.S. had promised Iran to stop the war in Gaza and Lebanon if Iran restrained. “They had promised to end the war in response to our restraint, but they did not keep their word,” he said.

The Iranian president also warned tensions will escalate if Israel’s aggression continues, adding, “We know that the United States is encouraging Israel to commit these atrocities.”

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran announced Sunday that a civilian had been killed in Israel’s attack on the country, without offering any details on the circumstances of his death.

The state-run IRNA news agency identified the dead man as Allahverdi Rahimpour and said he lived in a suburban area of southwestern Tehran.

While offering no details on what he was doing or where he was killed, IRNA made a point to say he was not a member of Iran’s armed forces.

Iran has offered few details on the attack and the damage caused by them so far.

A rescue worker checks a destroyed building hit in an Israeli airstrike in Tyre, southern Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024.(AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Lebanese women pass in front of a destroyed building hit in an Israeli airstrike in Tyre, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024.(AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Smoke rises from buildings hit in Israeli airstrikes in Tyre, southern Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)

Smoke rises from buildings hit in Israeli airstrikes in Tyre, southern Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)

A building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Tyre, southern Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)

Smoke rises from buildings hit by Israeli airstrikes in Tyre, southern Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)

Journalists work as smoke rises from a building hit in an Israeli airstrike in Tyre, southern Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Smoke rise from buildings hit in Israeli airstrikes in Tyre, southern Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)

Smoke rises from buildings hit in Israeli airstrikes in Tyre, southern Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)

Smoke rises from a building hit in an Israeli airstrike in Tyre, southern Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)

Smoke rises next of a destroyed building hit in an Israeli airstrike in Tyre, southern Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024.(AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)

Journalists film as smoke rises from buildings hit in Israeli airstrikes in Tyre, southern Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024.(AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

In this photo provided by the Israeli army, armed Israeli Air Force planes depart from an unknown location to attack Iran, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (Israeli Army via AP)

In this photo provided by the Israeli army, armed Israeli Air Force planes depart from an unknown location to attack Iran, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (Israeli Army via AP)

In this photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sits in a meeting in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows damaged buildings at Iran's Khojir military base outside of Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. An Israeli attack on Iran damaged facilities at a secretive military base southeast of the Iranian capital that experts in the past have linked to Tehran's onetime nuclear weapons program and at another base tied to its ballistic missile program, satellite photos analyzed Sunday by The Associated Press show. The damaged structures are in the bottom center of the image. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

In this photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves to the crowd in a meeting in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)