The family of a US-Palestinian man allegedly killed in an Israeli settler attack in the West Bank has demanded that the US State Department launch a probe into his death.
Saif al-Din Kamil Abdul Karim Musalat was beaten to death on Friday in Sinjil, a village north of Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority health ministry said. His name was also reported as Sayafollah Musallet.
Musalat, born and based in Florida, traveled to the West Bank last month to spend time with relatives, his family said in a statement issued by lawyer Diana Halum following the deadly attack.
The PA health ministry said a second man, Mohammed Rizq Hussein al-Shalabi, 23, died after being shot during the attack and “left to bleed for hours.”
The IDF said violence flared after Palestinians threw rocks at a group of Israelis, lightly injuring two civilians, the latest in a spate of clashes involving settlers in the West Bank.
The ensuing “violent confrontation… included vandalism of Palestinian property, arson, physical clashes and rock hurling,” the IDF said.
Upon receiving reports of violence, the IDF said, troops and police officers were dispatched to the scene to “disperse the clash,” during which forces used riot dispersal means. There have been no arrests yet.
Musalat’s family said they were “devastated” at his death, describing the 20-year-old as a “kind, hard-working and deeply respected” man who was deeply connected to his Palestinian heritage.
They said he was “protecting his family’s land from settlers who were attempting to steal it.”
According to Palestinian accounts, settlers were the ones who instigated the clash when Palestinians tried to protest the establishment of a new illegal outpost adjacent to Sinjil, one of dozens that have mushroomed across the West Bank with little to no enforcement by Israeli authorities.
According to the family’s statement, settlers blocked an ambulance and paramedics from reaching Musalat as he lay injured, and he died before making it to the hospital.
His death was “an unimaginable nightmare and injustice that no family should ever have to face,” they added.
“We demand the US State Department lead an immediate investigation and hold the Israeli settlers who killed Saif accountable for their crimes. We demand justice.”
Asked for comment, the US State Department said it was “aware of reports of the death of a US citizen in the West Bank.”
“We won’t comment further out of respect for the privacy of the family and loved ones,” said a State Department spokesperson.
Rights groups have denounced a rise in violence committed by settlers in the West Bank, which Israel has controlled since capturing the area from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War. The United Nations has said that such attacks against Palestinians are taking place in a climate of “impunity.”
Last week, AFP journalists witnessed clashes between dozens of Israeli settlers and Palestinians in Sinjil, where Palestinians set fire to makeshift settler structures and were gearing up to march against settler attacks on nearby farmland.
Israel recently erected a high fence cutting off parts of Sinjil from Road 60, which runs through the West Bank from north to south, and which both Israelis and Palestinians use.
Violence in the West Bank has surged since the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza.
Since then, Israeli forces have arrested some 6,000 wanted Palestinians across the territory, including more than 2,350 affiliated with Hamas.
According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 950 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops, or terrorists carrying out attacks.
During the same period, 52 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another eight members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank.