A 20 -year -old American from Florida was beaten until death by Israeli settlers on Friday while visiting relatives at the busy Bank, according to his family and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Palestine.
Sayfollah Musallet, known as Saif, was “brutally beaten until death” in the city of Al-Mazra’a Ash-Sharqiya, north of Ramallah, the family said in a statement on social networks and confirmed NBC News. According to the family, a group of settlers prevented an ambulance and paramedics from arriving in Musallet for approximately three hours.
After the settlers cleared, Musallet’s brother was able to communicate with him and take him to the ambulance, according to the statement. However, “Saif died before arriving at the hospital.”
A second man, Mohammed al-Shalabi, 23, was also killed in the same clash with the settlers, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Palestine.
Hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers live in developments built in Palestinian territories and widely considered illegal by the international community. Since October 2023, when Hamas attacked the south of Israel, causing the war in Gaza, the violence perpetrated by the holiday settlers has increased, often helped or booked by Israeli security forces.
The attacks of the settlers include incursions into villages, fires caused by houses and farmland, and physical assaults on residents who regularly have become mortal.
It is currently not clear why the confrontation that killed Musallet and Al-Shalabi began.
NBC News has communicated with the State Department to comment. According to Reuters, a state department spokesman said he was “aware of the reports of the death of an American citizen in the West Bank,” and added that the department had no more comments “out of respect for family privacy and loved ones” of the reported victim.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Friday that he was “aware of the reports on a murdered Palestinian civilian and several Palestinians injured as a result of confrontation, and are being examined by the Israel Police.”
The Israel Police did not immediately respond to the request for NBC News information about the incident or the settlers involved.
Saif’s cousin, Fatmah Muhammed, told NBC News on Saturday that Musallet worked in a ice cream shop directed 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 on his way to the West Bank from Florida for funeral, which will be held on Sunday.
“This news has been devastating for the whole family,” Muhammed said.
Nizar Milbes, a close family friend who is currently visiting the West Bank from California, told NBC News that many residents of al-Mazra’a Ash-Sharqiya are Americans.
The city was known for its hills and olive trees, where many modern Palestinian houses are built, including some of the most opulent houses in the West Bank. The families gathered for the barbecue and relaxed, many of them travel from the United States for vacation, but Milbes said that the growing violence of the settlers has transformed the area.
“There is nothing here for people to enjoy, the settlers have taken everything,” News told NBC. “People can’t even go there. The settlers have burned vacation houses, have invaded and put their things there.”
In March, a United Nations report warned that the violence of the settlers had “increased in a climate of continuous impunity.”
Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group, said the settlers face minimum legal consequences of violence against the Palestinians. Between 2005 and 2023, more than 93% of all investigations were closed without an accusation and only 3% of the investigations led to a conviction, according to a report by the organization.
“The low condemnation rate sends the message that the system of application of the law, in its entirety, does not consider that the violence of the settlers is a serious problem, which contributes to the sense of immunity of the perpetrators”, “,” Said the report.
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 strong increase in previous years.
Cair-Florida, the Florida chapter of the American-Islamic Relations Council, a National Organization for Muslim Civil Rights and Defense, condemned the Israeli settlers “backed and enabled by the Israeli government”, by the death of Musallet, and called President Donald Trump to “put first United States.”
“This murder is only the last murder of an American citizen by illegal Israeli settlers or soldiers,” said the statement. “All other murders of an American citizen have been unpunished by the US government, so the Israeli government undoubtedly maintains killing the American Palestinians and, of course, other Palestinians.”
In April, American Amer Rabee, 14, was shot dead by Israeli soldiers. His family said he was collecting almonds, the IDF said he was throwing rocks. In September 2024, the Turkish-American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was shot dead by an Israeli soldier during a demonstration against the holiday settlements.
American citizens Mohammad Ahmed Mohammad Khdour and Tawfic Hafeth Abdel Jabbar, both 17 years old, were killed by the Israeli fire in separated incidents in February and January 2024.
