A funeral was held on Sunday near the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Ramallah for Sayfollah “Saif” Musallet, a 20-year-old American citizen from Tampa, Florida, who was killed by Jewish settlers on Friday while visiting family.
Musallet and another Palestinian, Mohammad al-Shalabi, 23, were killed in a settler attack near the village of Sinjil. Musallet was beaten to death, while al-Shalabi was shot in the back. Their bodies were carried through the streets of the village of Al-Mazraa a- Sharqiya on Sunday. The funeral had been delayed a day to allow Musallet’s father to arrive from the United States.
Witnesses said that settlers threw stones, used batons, and opened fire on Palestinians and Israeli activists who were in Sinjil as part of a weekly Friday gathering that was organized in response to growing settler violence and threats against residents of the village. Musallet was visiting his family in al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya and joined the gathering in Sinjil.
A relative of Musallet described the attack to Haaretz: “There were three settlers under the age of 18 who attacked us with batons. Then, a pickup truck arrived with more settlers – two of them in the back were armed with M16s and wearing army pants.” He said that the masked settlers were the same people who attacked the village a day earlier.
“They started throwing stones from their car at people, and Saif was hit in the back,” the relative stated. He said that the settlers then opened fire, causing the Palestinians to flee. “It was planned – they surrounded us from all directions,” he said. According to Haaretz, there are currently no settlers detained by Israeli authorities on suspicion of involvement in the murders.
Mussallet’s family said that settlers beat him unconscious, then blocked ambulances from reaching him for three hours, and he died on the way to the hospital. The family is calling on the US State Department to lead an investigation into his death. “We demand the US State Department lead an immediate investigation and hold the Israeli settlers who killed Saif accountable for their crimes,” the family said.
The State Department confirmed in a statement to CBS News on Saturday that an American citizen was killed in the West Bank, but referred questions about any investigation into the incident to Israel’s government.
