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.
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