In the first address of his campaign for U.S. Senate, former Maryland governor Larry Hogan promised he would be the state’s “pro-Israel champion” in Washington and called for Hamas to immediately release the hostages still held in Gaza.

Hogan (R) used a speech Friday to the influential Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington to emphasize that Hamas must be held accountable for the Oct. 7 attack that killed roughly 1,200 people in Israel. Any cease-fire, he said, would depend upon the return of those taken during the attack.

“Look, of course, none of us want to see death and suffering,” he said. “We want to see the violence come to an end. The way to solve this humanitarian crisis and achieve a cease-fire is for Hamas leaders to immediately release every single one of those hostages. And then, they should surrender and be held accountable.”

He promised to “fight for our closest and most important ally” and praised retiring Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), who is Jewish, for his decades of steadfast support for Israel. “If I have the honor of becoming your next senator, that is exactly what I will be — just like I was for eight years as your governor,” Hogan said.

Hogan said he launched his last-minute bid for the open seat in the deeply Democratic state after watching an immigration bill fail on the Senate floor. He drew a contrast between his position and that of Maryland’s other senator, Chris Van Hollen (D). Van Hollen signed a letter this week urging President Biden to withhold offensive military aid to Israel until it allows humanitarian assistance to reach Gaza.

More than 31,500 people have been killed and over 73,500 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. A team of United Nations experts found “reasonable grounds to believe” that the Oct. 7 attack involved sexual assault, including rape and gang rape, according to a report released this month.

Hamas has denied that its forces sexually abused any of the Israelis killed or the roughly 250 people taken hostage that day. About 120 hostages were freed during a short cease-fire in November. Israel says it is focused on bringing home those who remain, at least some of whom are feared dead.

Hogan recounted pro-Israel actions he took during his two terms as governor, including a trade mission there and an executive order he signed that prohibits the state from doing business with companies engaged in a boycott of Israel.

Hogan’s pro-Israel remarks, which align with those expressed by Senate Republicans, come as leading Democrats on Capitol Hill have shown an increasing willingness to criticize the actions of Israel’s far-right government.

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) delivered a scathing speech Thursday on the Senate floor accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government of obstructing peace, and of putting Israel, with the “over the top” military response in Gaza, on a path toward becoming an international “pariah.”

“We should not be forced into a position of unequivocally supporting the actions of an Israeli government that includes bigots who reject the idea of a Palestinian state,” Schumer said, calling on Israel to pick a new path forward and hold an election.

The speech marked a sharp pivot for Schumer, the most senior Jewish official in the United States and a steadfast ally of Israel, though the more progressive members of his party began criticizing Israel’s actions in the Gaza war months ago.

Israeli officials slammed Schumer’s speech as “counterproductive.”

Republicans have blasted Democrats’ growing criticism of Netanyahu, and have cast their push for humanitarian aid in Gaza as an effective olive branch to Hamas that would serve to undermine America’s closet Middle East ally. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called Schumer’s speech “grotesque” and said Democrats were treating Israel like a “colony of America, whose leaders serve at the pleasure of the party in power in Washington,” rather than like an ally.

The conflict in Gaza has permeated Maryland politics for months.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators have disrupted at least two campaign events of the leading Democrats running for Senate — Prince George’s County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks and Rep. David Trone.

Both have broadly called for a cease-fire, with Trone saying billions in aid needs to be delivered and Alsobrooks saying Israel needs a two-state solution and someone other than Netanyahu to deliver it.

Twenty state legislators in January formed a Jewish Caucus, which invited the families of Israeli hostages to share their harrowing stories in Annapolis. Prompted by concerns about a rise in antisemitism, the Maryland Senate passed a bill sponsored by Sen. Benjamin F. Kramer (D-Montgomery) to bolster education about the Holocaust and implement an anti-hate curriculum in Maryland schools by 2025.

Gov. Wes Moore (D) on Friday offered his support for both the state of Israel and the Palestinian people, calling for the return of hostages to their families, humanitarian aid and a pause in military violence.

“We need a cease-fire now,” Moore said for the first time publicly, in an interview on WAMU radio’s “The Politics Hour with Kojo Nnamdi.”

As Hogan on Friday drew a parallel with Cardin as “exactly the kind of leadership that you will continue to see from me,” he called Van Hollen “one of the most hostile voices against Israel in the entire United States Senate.”

Van Hollen, in a speech on the Senate floor, called the Israeli government’s “deliberate withholding of food” in Gaza — which aid organizations say is causing mass hunger and starvation — a “textbook war crime.”

More than 70 Maryland rabbis wrote a letter this week to Van Hollen calling his claims false and urging the senator to change his rhetoric, which they said “stoked deeper divisions and further isolated Israel and our Jewish community.”

“We are aghast by your claims about war crimes and your portrayal of Israel as the aggressor,” the rabbis wrote.

Van Hollen said in a statement Friday: “Since Oct. 7, I have repeatedly and unreservedly spoken out about the horrors of the Hamas terrorist attacks.” He said he supports Israel’s right to defend itself and pressed for an immediate hostage release, but said he has “deep concerns” about actions taken by the Netanyahu government.

“A just war must be fought justly,” he said. “I don’t think most Marylanders support a position of giving a blank check to Netanyahu’s policies.”

Hogan drew applause Friday when he mentioned withdrawing from two Harvard fellowships because the university did not “immediately and forcefully denounce” a statement by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee that he characterized at the time as “antisemitic vitriol.”

“The fight to support Israel and to confront the epidemic of antisemitism in our society has sadly only just begun,” he said.