Israeli settlers beat a 20-year-old American to death while another man was fatally shot during a violent confrontation in the occupied West Bank on Friday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry and his family.
Sayfollah Musallet, a U.S. citizen from Tampa, Florida, was visiting relatives in the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, when his family says a group of settlers assaulted him while attempting to seize the family’s land.
In a statement, the family said Musallet was “brutally beaten.” Medics were reportedly blocked from reaching him for more than three hours, until settlers finally cleared the area, allowing his younger brother to carry him to an ambulance. Musallet died before reaching the hospital.
The Israeli military claims the violence broke out after Palestinians hurled rocks at Israelis and lightly wounded two people.
On Sunday, Musallet was laid to rest alongside friend Hussein Al-Shalabi, a 23-year-old Palestinian man who was shot in the chest and killed in the same violent incident.
Musallet’s family remembered him as “a kind, hard-working, and deeply-respected young man” who was known for “his generosity, ambition, and connection to his Palestinian heritage.”
They called his death an “unimaginable nightmare and an injustice that no family should ever have to face” and urged the U.S. State Department to investigate the incident.
A spokesperson for the State Department told press outlets it was aware of reports a U.S. citizen had died in the West Bank but declined to comment further “out of respect” for the family.
Musallet is one of several U.S. citizens who have been killed by Israeli military or settler violence in the occupied West Bank in recent years, including a 14-year-old American who was shot by Israeli soldiers in April.
On Saturday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations accused the U.S. government of “shielding Israel from accountability” in these cases.
“This was not an isolated incident,” the group said in a statement. “It was part of a long, unpunished pattern of violence against U.S. citizens by Israeli soldiers and settlers.”
A United Nations report released in March warned of a “climate of continuing impunity,” which it said had fueled a sharp rise in state-sanctioned settler violence across the West Bank following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
