By Freddie Clayton, reposted from NBC, July 12, 2025
A 20-year-old American from Florida was beaten to death by Israeli settlers on Friday while visiting relatives in the occupied West Bank, according to his family and the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Sayfollah Musallet, known as Saif, was “brutally beaten to death” in the town of al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya, north of Ramallah, the family said in a statement on social media and confirmed to NBC News. According to the family, a group of settlers blocked an ambulance from reaching Musallet for about three hours.
After the settlers cleared, Musallet’s brother was able to reach him and carry him to the ambulance, according to the statement. However, “Saif died before reaching the hospital.”
A second man, Mohammed al-Shalabi, 23, was also killed in the same incident, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers live in developments built in Palestinian territories that are widely considered illegal by the international community. Since October 2023, when Hamas attacked southern Israel, sparking the war in Gaza, violence perpetrated by settlers in the West Bank has surged, often aided or abetted by Israeli security forces.
Settler attacks include raids on villages, arson targeting homes and farmland, and physical assaults on residents that have regularly turned deadly.
It is currently unclear why the confrontation that killed Musallet and al-Shalabi began.
In response to a request for comment from NBC News, a State Department spokesperson said it was “aware of reports of the death of a U.S. citizen in the West Bank,” adding the department had no further comment “out of respect for the privacy of the family and loved ones” of the reported victim.
The Israel Defense Forces said Friday it was “aware of reports regarding a Palestinian civilian killed and a number of injured Palestinians as a result of the confrontation, and they are being looked into by the ISA and Israel Police.
Israel Police and Border Police forces were deployed to the scene “following reports of a physical confrontation between civilians,” police told NBC News.
“Several individuals from both sides were detained at the scene on suspicion of involvement in acts of violence,” it said. “A joint investigation has since been opened by the Israel Police and the IDF Military Police.”
Saif’s cousin, Fatmah Muhammed, told NBC News on Saturday that Musallet worked in an ice cream shop run by his father in Tampa, Florida. He traveled to the West Bank in June to visit his mother, brother, and sister. Musallet’s father was en route to the West Bank from Florida for his funeral, to be held on Sunday.
“This news has been devastating for the entire family,” Muhammad said.
Nizar Milbes, a close family friend currently visiting the West Bank from California, told NBC News that many residents of al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya are Americans.
The town is known for its olive trees and rolling hills, where many modern Palestinian homes are built, including some of the West Bank’s more opulent houses. Families gathered to barbecue and relax, many of them traveling from the U.S. for vacation, but Milbes said growing settler violence has transformed the area.
“There’s nothing left over here for people to enjoy; the settlers have taken everything,” he told NBC News. “People can’t even go there anymore. The settlers have burned the vacation homes, they’ve encroached and put their stuff there.”
In March, a United Nations report warned that settler violence had “increased in a climate of continuing impunity.”
Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group, said settlers rarely face legal consequences for violence perpetrated against Palestinians. Between 2005 and 2023, more than 93% of all investigations were closed without an indictment, and only 3% of investigations led to a conviction, according to a report by the organization.
“The low conviction rate sends the message that the law enforcement system, in its entirety, does not consider settler violence to be a serious issue, contributing to the perpetrators’ sense of immunity,” the report said.
Since October 2023, 961 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, according to a database maintained by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, a sharp rise from previous years.
CAIR-Florida, the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a nationwide Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, condemned Israeli settlers, “backed and enabled by the Israeli government,” for Musallet’s death, and called on President Donald Trump to “put America first.”
“This murder is only the latest killing of an American citizen by illegal Israeli settlers or soldiers,” the statement said. “Every other murder of an American citizen has gone unpunished by the American government, which is why the Israeli government keeps wantonly killing American Palestinians and, of course, other Palestinians.”
In April, 14-year-old American Amer Rabee was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers. His family said he was picking almonds, the IDF said he was throwing rocks. In September 2024, Turkish-American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was shot dead by an Israeli soldier during a demonstration against West Bank settlements.
American citizens Mohammad Ahmed Mohammad Khdour and Tawfic Hafeth Abdel Jabbar, both 17, were killed by Israeli fire in separate incidents in February and January 2024.
Family of American citizen killed by Israeli settlers demands US probe
Israeli forces have killed at least nine US citizens since 2022. None have resulted in criminal charges
By Ali Harb, reposted from Al Jazeera, July 12, 2025
Washington, DC – The family of Sayfollah Musallet, a 20-year-old United States citizen from Florida who was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, is calling on Washington to launch its own probe into the incident and to hold the perpetrators accountable.
Musallet’s family said in a statement that Israeli settlers surrounded him for three hours during the assault on Friday and attacked medics who were attempting to reach him.
The slain young man, known as Saif, was a “kind, hard-working, and deeply-respected young man, working to build his dreams”, the family said.
“This is an unimaginable nightmare and injustice that no family should ever have to face,” the statement added.
“We demand that the US State Department lead an immediate investigation and hold the Israeli settlers who killed Saif accountable for their crimes. We demand justice.”
Washington has previously resisted calls to investigate the killing of US citizens by Israeli forces. Instead, US officials say that Israel is capable of probing its own abuses.
But Israeli investigations rarely lead to criminal charges against settlers or soldiers, despite their well-documented violations against Palestinians.
The State Department said late on Friday that it “has no higher priority than the safety and security of US citizens overseas”.
“We are aware of reports of the death of a US citizen in the West Bank. When a US citizen dies overseas, we stand ready to provide consular services,” a department spokesperson told Al Jazeera, declining to provide further details, citing the privacy of the victim’s family.
Israeli forces have killed at least nine US citizens since 2022, including veteran Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh.
But none of the incidents have resulted in criminal charges.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) said the US “must stop treating Palestinian American lives as expendable”.
“Israeli settlers lynched 20-year-old Palestinian American Sayfollah Musallet, while US officials stayed silent,” the advocacy group said in a statement.
“Sayfollah was born and raised in Florida. He was visiting family for the summer in the West Bank when settlers beat him to death while he protested illegal land seizures.”
American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) questioned whether Trump will stay true to his pledge to prioritise US interests.
“Will he uphold his ‘America First’ promise when it’s a Palestinian-American whose life was taken? Or will he once again bow his head to Israel, no matter the cost in blood?” AMP said in a statement.
But the group stressed that US citizenship should not be a condition for justice. Another Palestinian was killed in the same settler attack as Musallet on Saturday.
“And let’s be unequivocally clear: whether a Palestinian holds American citizenship or not, every single murder committed by this regime must be explicitly prohibited, punished, and condemned,” AMP said.
Ali Harb is a writer based in Washington, DC. He reports on US foreign policy, Arab-American issues, civil rights, and politics.
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