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Al Jazeera
17-07-2025
- Al Jazeera
‘The love he gave': Family vows to keep Sayfollah Musallet's memory alive
Sayfollah Musallet was a brother, a son and an ambitious young man who was just at the beginning of his life. That is the message his family has repeated since July 11, when the 20-year-old United States citizen was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the village of Sinjil in the occupied West Bank. That message, they hope, will prevent the Florida-born Sayfollah from becoming 'just another number' in the growing list of Palestinian Americans whose killings never find justice. That's why his cousin, Fatmah Muhammad, took a moment amid her grief on Wednesday to remember the things she loved about Sayfollah. The two united over a passion for food, and Muhammad, a professional baker, remembers how carefully Sayfollah would serve the delicate knafeh pastry she sold through the ice cream shop he ran in Tampa. 'Just in the way he plated my dessert, he made it look so good,' Muhammad, 43, recalled. 'I even told him he did a better job than me.' 'That really showed the type of person he was,' she added. 'He wanted to do things with excellence.' 'The love he gave all of us' Born and raised in Port Charlotte, a coastal community in south central Florida, Sayfollah – nicknamed Saif – maintained a deep connection to his ancestral roots abroad. He spent a large portion of his teenage years in the occupied West Bank, where his two brothers and sister also lived. There, his parents, who own a home near Sinjil, hoped he could better connect with his culture and language. But after finishing high school, Sayfollah was eager to return to the US to try his hand at entrepreneurship. Last year, he, his father and his cousins opened the dessert shop in Tampa, Florida, playfully named Ice Screamin. But the ice cream shop was just the beginning. Sayfollah's ambition left a deep impression on Muhammad. 'He had his vision to expand the business, to multiply it by many,' she said, her voice at times shaking with grief. 'This at 20, when most kids are playing video games.' 'And the crazy thing is, any goal that he set his mind to, he always did it,' she added. 'He always exceeded everyone's expectations, especially with the love he gave all of us.' Sayfollah's aunt, 58-year-old Samera Musallet, also remembers his dedication to his family. She described Sayfollah as a loving young man who never let his aunts pay for anything in his presence – and who always insisted on bringing dessert when he came for dinner. At the same time, Samera said he was still youthful and fun-loving: He liked to watch comedy movies, shop for clothes and make late-night trips to the WaWa convenience store. One of her fondest memories came when Sayfollah was only 14, and they went together to a baseball game featuring the Kansas City Royals. 'When we got there, he could smell the popcorn and all the hot dogs. He bought everything he could see and said, 'We're going to share!'' she told Al Jazeera. 'After he ate all that junk food, we turned around, and he was sleeping. I woke him up when the game was over, and he goes: 'Who won?'' 'I really want to get married' Another one of his aunts, 52-year-old Katie Salameh, remembers that Sayfollah's mind had turned to marriage in the final months of his young life As the Florida spring gave way to summer, Sayfollah had announced plans to return to the West Bank to see his mother and siblings. But he confided to Salameh that he had another reason for returning. 'The last time I saw him was we had a family wedding, and that was the weekend of Memorial Day [in May],' Salameh told Al Jazeera. 'I asked him: 'Are you so excited to see your siblings and your mom?' He said, 'Oh my god, I'm so excited.' Then he goes, 'I really want to get married. I'm going to look for a bride when I'm there.'' To keep the ice cream shop running smoothly, Sayfollah had arranged a switch with his father: He would return to the West Bank while his father would travel to Tampa to mind the business. But that decision would unwittingly put Sayfollah's father more than 10,000 kilometres away from his son when violent Israeli settlers surrounded him, as witnesses and his family would later recount. Israeli authorities said the attack in Sinjil began with rock-throwing and 'violent clashes … between Palestinians and Israeli civilians', a claim Sayfollah's family and witnesses have rejected. Instead, they said Sayfollah was trying to protect his family's land when he was encircled by a 'mob of settlers' who beat him. Even when an ambulance was called, Sayfollah's family said the settlers blocked the paramedics from reaching his broken body. Sayfollah's younger brother would ultimately help carry his dying brother to emergency responders. The settlers also fatally shot Mohammed al-Shalabi, a 23-year-old Palestinian man, who witnesses said was left bleeding for hours. 'His phone was on, and he wasn't responding,' his mother, Joumana al-Shalabi, told reporters. 'He was missing for six hours. They found him martyred under the tree. They beat him and shot him with bullets.' Palestinians cannot legally possess firearms in the occupied West Bank, but Israeli settlers can. The Israeli government itself has encouraged the settlers to bear arms, including through the distribution of rifles to civilians. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has recorded the killings of at least 964 Palestinians at the hands of Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank since October 7, 2023. And the violence appears to be on the rise. The OHCHR noted that there was a 13-percent increase in the number of killings during the first six months of 2025, compared with the same period last year. 'Pain I can't even describe' An Al Jazeera analysis also found that Israeli forces and settlers have killed at least nine US citizens since 2022, including veteran reporter Shireen Abu Akleh. None of those deaths have resulted in criminal charges, with Washington typically relying on Israel to conduct its own investigations. So far, US President Donald Trump has not directly addressed Sayfollah's killing. When asked in the Oval Office about the fatal beating, Trump deferred to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. 'We protect all American citizens anywhere in the world, especially if they're unjustly murdered or killed,' Rubio replied on Trump's behalf. 'We're gathering more information.' Rubio also pointed to a statement issued a day earlier from the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee. The ambassador called on Israel to 'aggressively investigate' the attack, saying 'there must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act'. It was a particularly jarring sentiment from Huckabee, who has been a vocal supporter of Israel's illegal settlements in the West Bank and has even denied the very existence of a Palestinian people. Nevertheless, no independent, US-led investigation has been announced. According to Israeli media, three Israeli settlers, including a military reservist, were taken into custody following the deadly attack, but all were subsequently released. It has only been four days since Sayfollah's killing, and his family told Al Jazeera the initial shock has only now begun to dissipate. But in its place has come a flood of grief and anger. Muhammad still struggles to accept that he 'died because he was on his own land'. She sees Sayfollah's death as part of a broader pattern of abuses, whether in the West Bank or in Gaza, where Israel has led a war since 2023. 'I see it on the news all the time with other people in the West Bank. I see it in Gaza – the indiscriminate killing of anybody in their way,' she said. 'But when it happens to you, it's just so hard to even fathom,' she added. 'It's pain I can't even describe.'
Al Mayadeen
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Mayadeen
IOF turn West Bank's Sinjil into 'big prison' amid ongoing aggression
A towering five-meter metal fence now slices through the eastern edge of Sinjil, a Palestinian town in the occupied West Bank, reducing it to what residents call an open-air prison, Reuters reported on Friday. All but one route in and out of the town has been sealed by heavy gates and roadblocks, closely watched by Israeli soldiers. "Sinjil is now a big prison," said Mousa Shabaneh, 52, a father of seven. He watched in despair as the fence was installed across his nursery, where he once grew and sold trees, his only source of income. "Of course, we're now forbidden from going to the nursery. All the trees I had were burned and lost," Shabaneh indicated. "In the end, they cut off our livelihood." Read more: Egypt condemns Israeli annexation calls, West Bank violations Walls, fences, and military checkpoints have long defined life for the nearly 3 million Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank. But since the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023, Palestinians say the number and intensity of these barriers have increased dramatically, leaving many towns under de facto siege. The fence around Sinjil is one of the most visible examples. The Israeli occupation military claims it was erected to protect the Ramallah-Nablus highway, citing "recurring terror incidents." Residents are now forced to traverse narrow, winding streets to the only permitted exit. Many walk past blockades on foot to reach parked cars. Bahaa Foqaa, Sinjil's deputy mayor, said 8,000 residents are confined to just 10 acres of space, fenced off from 2,000 acres of their privately owned land. "This is the policy that the occupation army uses to intimidate people and break the will of the Palestinian people," he said. "Israel" justifies these actions as protective measures for settlers in the occupied territory. Israel Gantz, head of the Binyamin Regional Council overseeing 47 settlements in the region, alleged that Sinjil's residents had attacked Jewish vehicles, claiming that unrestricted access would "encourage the mass murder of Jews." Approximately 700,000 settlers now live in land occupied since 1967. Most of the international community considers these settlements illegal under international law. Since October 2023, "Israel" has intensified its military presence across the occupied West Bank. Overnight roadblocks of earth and stone appeared, followed by brightly painted metal gates. New permanent and flying checkpoints now dot the landscape. For many, this has severely disrupted daily life. Sana Alwan, a 52-year-old personal trainer in Sinjil, said her commute to Ramallah now takes up to three hours each way and unpredictable delays have caused her work to decline. "Half of our life is on the roads," she said. While spared the full-scale war seen on Gaza, life in the occupied West Bank has grown increasingly difficult. A ban on Palestinian workers entering the 1948-occupied Palestinian territories cut off livelihoods for tens of thousands. A crackdown on refugee camps displaced thousands earlier this year. Mohammad Jammous, who lives in Ramallah and grew up in Areeha, said he now visits his family only once a month, due to travel times stretching to several hours. "Israel" claims its measures are necessary due to the "complex security reality," justifying the placement and relocation of checkpoints to monitor threats. However, Palestinian Authority officials argue the increasing restrictions are intentional efforts to suppress the population and destabilize everyday life. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa warned, "They are doing everything they can to make life extremely difficult for our people." Read more: IOF demolish 1,000+ homes, turn West Bank camps into 'lifeless zones' Meanwhile, 11 Palestinians were injured early Friday morning following coordinated assaults by Israeli settlers and occupation forces in the village of Beita, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, in a systematic escalation targeting Palestinian villages. BREAKING: Right now, at 1 a.m. Palestine time, Israeli settlers are attacking the village of Beita, Nablus—firing at civilian homes and defenseless Palestinians trying to push them have been reported, and ambulances are rushing to the scene. sources reported that a group of settlers attacked a home in the Qamas area, adjacent to Jabal Sbeih in Beita, attempted to set it on fire, and brutally assaulted three residents who tried to defend it. Shortly after, Israeli occupation forces stormed the village, firing live ammunition, toxic gas canisters, and sound grenades extensively, resulting in eight additional Palestinians suffering from suffocation due to gas inhalation. In a related development, settlers from the Yitzhar settlement cut down dozens of fruit-bearing trees on farmland in the village of Burin, south of Nablus, specifically targeting the village's southern outskirts. Israeli settler militias uproot olive trees from indigenous Palestinian land in the Burin town southern Nablus in the occupied West Bank. assault follows a similar attack just days earlier on the same house in Beita, where settlers threw stones at it and set up a tent nearby, as part of a broader pattern of violations aimed at intimidating Palestinian residents and imposing new settlement realities on the ground. On Tuesday, Israeli occupation forces issued demolition notices for 104 homes and buildings in the Tulkarm refugee camp, citing 'military purposes'. Residents were given 72 hours to evacuate their belongings. Read more: 'Israel' establishes first civilian court in West Bank settlement
CNN
14-07-2025
- CNN
‘Why are you not preventing settler terrorism': Palestinians call out IDF following American citizen beaten to death by Israel settlers
Saif Musallet was just weeks away from celebrating his 21st birthday, and as he visited his family here, the Florida native's thoughts began to turn toward marriage. 'I think it's time for me to get married,' Musallet told his father, Kamel, during a phone call last week. 'Hopefully while I'm here, I'm able to find a future spouse to get engaged to.' That phone call would be Kamel's last conversation with his son. Days later, Saif was beaten to death by Israeli settlers, according to his family and eyewitnesses. Musallet was one of two men killed that day by settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, while they were in the neighboring town of Sinjil, where their families own farmland. Hundreds turned out on Sunday, braving the afternoon sun, for the funeral processions of the two men, carrying their bodies to their final resting place. Some mourners openly wept, burying their faces in the Palestinian flags wrapped around the bodies. They are among nearly 1,000 Palestinians who have been killed by the Israeli military or settlers since the region erupted into war on October 7, 2023, according to the United Nations. Their deaths mark the latest escalation in settler attacks in Sinjil, where Palestinian residents say settlers have encroached on their land over the last two months and terrorized Palestinians. Musallet was among dozens of Palestinians who drove to Sinjil together after Friday prayers seeking to reach their land. They say they were attacked by settlers wielding rocks, clubs and guns. Amid it all, a group of settlers came down on Musallet, beating him with sticks or clubs, eyewitnesses told CNN. Musallet's younger brother managed to reach him and called for help. He said Musallet was unconscious, but still breathing and needed an ambulance. But for at least two hours, no ambulance could reach him. Settlers were still roaming the area and had already shattered the windshield of an ambulance that day. On the other side, the Israeli military was firing tear gas to disperse the crowd of Palestinians and refusing to allow the ambulances to pass for hours. By the time the ambulance reached Musallet, his face was blue, and he had stopped breathing. 'Nobody could get to him,' Musallet's father, Kamel, said. He now says he holds the Israeli military just as responsible for his son's death as the settlers who beat him. 'They prevented the ambulance and allowed the settlers to do what they do anytime they want to,' Kamel Musallet said. 'I hold the Israeli military just as responsible as the settlers and the American government for not doing anything about this. You know, why are you not telling the IDF? Why are you not preventing settler terrorism?' The Israeli military has said it is investigating Musallet's death but did not respond to allegations that it prevented ambulances from reaching him. The Musallet family has called on the United States to investigate Musallet's killing. Beyond a condolence call from the US consulate, Kamel Musallet said he has heard nothing more from the Trump administration, which earlier this year lifted sanctions on Israeli settlers imposed by the previous administration. Saif Musallet was born and raised in Port Charlotte, Florida and owned an ice cream shop with his father in Tampa, where his father said Saif's 'gentle soul' shone through. 'Everyone loved him. Everyone loved Saif,' his father said. But Kamel Musallet says he believes there is a double-standard – that the US government would be taking his son's killing more seriously if he were American-Israeli. 'We want justice. We want the American-Israeli and the American-Palestinian to be in the same class,' Kamel Musallet said. 'These are Americans. But for some reason, the American-Palestinian is differentiated from the American-Israeli.' Hafez Abdel Jabbar, who is also a US citizen, was among the Palestinians on the scene that day. He said settlers and soldiers prevented ambulances from reaching Musallet for hours, until a vehicle with officers from COGAT, Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, showed up and agreed to escort him through. Abdel Jabbar believes Musallet could have been saved had they been allowed through earlier. 'Oh yes, of course,' Abdel Jabbar said. 'From the first minute, from the first call … he was breathing.' CNN witnessed settler violence in Sinjil first-hand on Sunday, when we came under attack from a group of settlers who smashed the window of our vehicle. As Abdel Jabbar drove CNN to the site where he found Musallet's unconscious body, a white car began following the team. Inside were a group of at least four settlers, who covered their faces as they began pursuing our vehicle. As we approached a nearby intersection, the settlers got out of their car and tried to pelt our vehicle, but then turned around as CNN approached a nearby Israeli border police vehicle. The border police unit immediately headed out to search for the settlers after being alerted by CNN. But minutes later, our team was ambushed. The settlers had hidden out of sight of the border police and attacked. One assailant wielding some sort of club or mallet struck CNN's vehicle, shattering the rear window as our team sped off. Israel police said they opened 'a proactive investigation in pursuit of justice' into the attack and that such incidents are treated 'extremely seriously.' 'If it would've taken us five more seconds, we all would've been beaten,' Abdel Jabber said. But for Abdel Jabber, it is just a taste of the grim reality he is forced to face in the West Bank. His son, Tawfic, was killed in January 2024 by an Israeli settler. 'You scream to the whole world and the whole world is watching – simply silent – seeing all these mothers put their sons that they worked so hard to raise them up for 20 years,' Abdel Jabbar said. 'And you pick them up when you put them in the ground, under the sky. And the silence goes on and on and on.' 'What hurts you deeply is the silence of the whole world.'
Irish Times
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
‘This is an unimaginable nightmare': Residents gather to mourn Palestinian-American and friend killed in Israeli-occupied West Bank
Palestinian flags covered their bodies and their heads were wrapped with keffiyehs as the two young men were lifted through the crowd. Hundreds of residents of Al-Mazra'a ash-Sharqiya, in the occupied West Bank , gathered on Sunday to mourn two of their own. American citizen Sayfollah Musallet (20) and Palestinian Mohammed Hussein Al-Shalabi (23) died last Friday – one was beaten to death by Israeli settlers, the other shot, their families and witnesses say. The men were killed after they went to agricultural land owned by local residents beside the nearby town of Sinjil. This has become a common Friday tradition, as Israeli settlers increasingly try to seize territory in this area – around 19km northeast of the city of Ramallah – and Palestinians attempt to defend it. The deaths happened three months after Israeli soldiers shot and killed 14-year-old American citizen Amer Rabee, in Turmus Aya, a town less than 5km away. READ MORE Musallet was born and living in Florida , where he worked at his family's Tampa ice-cream shop. He travelled to the West Bank on June 4th, his family said. Reading a family statement, his cousin Diana said Musallet was surrounded by settlers for more than three hours as paramedics tried to reach him, meaning they were unable to give him life-saving medical assistance. 'Saif was a brother and a son ... a kind, hard-working and deeply successful young man,' she said. 'This is an unimaginable nightmare and an injustice that no family should ever have to face. We demand the US State Department lead an immediate investigation and hold the Israeli settlers who killed Saif accountable for their crimes. Saif is not just a number. He is the kid that brings light in every room he walks into. We won't let him be forgotten.' [ 'Hanging on by a thread': Two days with activists protecting Palestinians from being forced off their land Opens in new window ] A US embassy spokesperson confirmed the death, telling The Irish Times: 'We offer our condolences to the family and are providing consular assistance. We have asked Israeli authorities for further details.' A state department spokesperson added that they have 'no higher priority than the safety and security of US citizens overseas', while referring questions about an investigation to the Israeli government. Men carry the bodies of American citizen Sayfollah Musallet (20) and Palestinian Mohammed Hussein Al-Shalabi (23), both killed during settler violence last Friday. Photograph: Sally Hayden Relatives of Mohammed Hussein Al-Shalabi (23) gather to mourn together the day after his death. Photograph: Sally Hayden Land near where settlers have been attacking in Sinjil, the occupied West Bank. Photograph: Sally Hayden A poster remembering American citizen Sayfollah Musallet (20) seen during his funeral on Sunday. Photograph: Sally Hayden Men pray at the funeral for American citizen Sayfollah Musallet (20) and Palestinian Mohammed Hussein Al-Shalabi (23), in Al-Mazra'a ash-Sharqiya, the occupied West Bank. Photograph: Sally Hayden An Israeli military spokesperson said a joint investigation had been opened by the Israeli police and the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division, and they could not share further details because the case is 'ongoing.' The military previously accused 'terrorists' of 'hurl[ing] rocks at Israeli civilians', saying a 'violent confrontation' later developed 'which included vandalism of Palestinian property, arson, physical clashes, and rock hurling'. A witness to Friday's violence said the settlers came 'like a gang' and 'made a trap', arriving while Palestinians were 'up in the farms' and using a vehicle to block the exit road. He suggested one of the reasons the settlers want to control the land is that it contains dozens of farms and water wells. Many American-Palestinians, like Musallet, regularly return to the area their family originally comes from and maintains a base in, even if they find full-time existence here unsustainable. 'We have to go to America to work,' explained one of Musallet's relatives. As a Palestinian living in the occupied West Bank, Shalabi faced restricted movement under occupation. Like many others there – who say Israel's stranglehold on the Palestinian economy hugely restricts employment opportunities – Shalabi was unable to find steady work and did whatever daily jobs he could find, said his uncle Samer Shalabi (55). Still, his uncle called Shalabi a 'happy kid' who would do 'things for the family to make their life easier'. [ Sanctions against individual settlers are hopelessly inadequate. The real settler organisation is Israel Opens in new window ] The day after his death, dozens of women sat in Shalabi's home, red-eyed and in shock. In the middle was his mother, Jumana Shalabi. She described the hours, on Friday, after she heard there were clashes and someone had died. 'My heart was worried,' she said. Because the military blocked the roads, witnesses said, friends and relatives were not able to search for Shalabi until late on Friday night, when they discovered his body. His mother believed he could have survived if he received medical attention sooner. 'He is the warmest son, warm with everybody. All the people in the neighbourhood, they loved him,' she said, crying again. Israeli human rights organisation B'tselem has documented at least 40 attacks by settlers in Sinjil over the last five years, including them setting fire to vehicles and homes in January this year, and last year cutting down olive trees, vandalising cars, stealing water tanks and chasing harvesters off their land with a drone. In 2022, settlement watchdog Kerem Navot wrote : 'It's clear that the settlers ... have their eyes on the land of the village of Sinjil,' saying an area of around 1,200 acres had been 'marked as a target for takeover decades ago'. As the settlers advanced, residents of Al-Mazra'a ash-Sharqiya and Sinjil issued calls to journalists. On July 4th, they invited The Irish Times to a 'civil peaceful demonstration and protest', saying, 'We can't access our lands due to the settlers' violent act[s] toward us. We have farms, homes and property and lands that we cannot attend to due to Israeli settlers blocking the roads, shooting at us, and throwing rocks on our vehicles.' Diana, a cousin of Sayfollah Musallet, reads a family statement the day after his death. Photograph: Sally Hayden A civil defence volunteer used his vehicle to transport wounded people following Friday's violence. Photograph: Sally Hayden Blood stains were still visible in a vehicle used to transport injured people the day after Friday's violence. Photograph: Sally Hayden One week later, the two young men were killed. Residents said more people were injured, with one civil defence volunteer showing The Irish Times streaked blood inside the vehicle he said he used to transport wounded people before the roads were blocked. At least 1,161 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the beginning of 2023, according to the UN, including at least 22 women and 236 children. The vast majority – 884 – were killed by live ammunition, the UN says. Over the same period, at least 59 Israelis were killed in the West Bank, including nine women and nine children. Musallet's friend from the US, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Juma, said they were part of a 'bunch of guys in Tampa who used to hang out every day ... We used to go to his house just to chill. We used to go to the pool, we used to go to the range, we used to go fishing together'. Juma – whose family is originally from the same area – called Musallet 'the best of us ... He never drank, he never did any drugs. This kid was just the best human being you'll ever meet in your life'. [ Three Palestinians killed by Israeli army during raid by settlers Opens in new window ] The 23-year-old said he finds being an American citizen 'very difficult' now. 'The country I live in supports the killing of my people. It's hard ... You see what's happening in Gaza. I hope something changes ... You can see this new generation that's coming up. They're becoming more aware of what's going on around the world ... They're seeing what they're seeing.' 'What happened is something that is not acceptable, not easy to deal with,' said Shalabi's uncle, Samer. 'Two kids who were killed in a very cold blood ... If you look at the eyes of the people you find the anger and sadness.' He said locals are terrified now, 'but even with that, they will never leave here ... It's our country. We're going to stay here. There's no other place for us'.
Yahoo
13-07-2025
- Yahoo
Palestinian-American beaten to death by Israeli settlers in occupied West Bank, another man shot dead, health ministry says
Israeli settlers killed a 20-year-old Palestinian-American man in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health and an eyewitness, as settler violence against Palestinians ramps up in the occupied territory. Twenty-year-old Sayfollah Musallet 'was martyred after being severely beaten all over his body by settlers in the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah,' the health ministry said in a statement on Friday. The municipality of Sinjel said that Musallet died following a 'barbaric attack' carried out by settlers as part of 'daily assaults' on local residents. It alleged Israeli forces stormed the area at the same time as the settlers' attack, obstructing the work of paramedics and volunteers. A friend of the deceased man's family told CNN he was with Musallet and took him to a hospital in Ramallah, adding the young man was an American citizen born in Tampa, Florida. Israel's military said 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 [Israeli Security Agency] and Israel Police.' Musallet's family is demanding the US State Department lead an investigation into the incident. 'We are devastated that our beloved Sayfollah Musallet (nicknamed Saif) was brutally beaten to death by Israeli settlers while he was protecting his family's land from settlers who were attempting to steal it,' the family said in a statement. 'We demand justice.' The US State Department said in a statement to CNN that it is aware of reports of the death of an American in the West Bank, without providing a name. 'Out of respect for the privacy of the family and loved ones during this difficult time, we have no further comment,' a department spokesperson said. Musallet ran a business in Tampa and had been in the West Bank since June 4 to visit family and friends, the family statement said. A second Palestinian man died in the attack in Sinjel after he was shot in the chest by settlers, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said. Ten others were wounded in the same attack, it added. The municipality said in a social media post Friday that settlers had also attacked an ambulance while paramedics were working near Sinjel. In a video accompanying the post which CNN has geolocated to the outskirts of Sinjel an ambulance can be seen with a smashed windscreen and rear window. CNN has reached out to the Israeli military and police about the incident. Following the attacks, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticised what it called Israel's expanding settlement projects in the occupied territory and called for urgent action to hold the perpetrators of settler violence accountable. Israel has recently ramped up military operations in the West Bank, displacing tens of thousands of Palestinians and razing entire communities as it targets what it says are militants operating in the territory. Multiple American citizens have been killed in the West Bank in the past few years, according to Palestinian officials and eyewitnesses, including a 14-year-old boy whom the Israeli military shot dead last April in what they described as a 'counterterrorism operation.' Israeli soldiers also shot dead a 26-year-old woman during a protest against an Israeli settlement in September 2024. CNN's Ibrahim Dahman, Annoa Abekah-Mensah and Eve Brennan contributed to this report.
