The United States ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, on Tuesday called on the Israeli authorities to “aggressively investigate” the death of a 20-year-old Palestinian-American citizen in a clash on Friday with Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, calling his killing a “murder” and a “criminal and terrorist act.”
Mr. Huckabee, who has been vocal about his support for settlement in the occupied West Bank — which is widely viewed as illegal in the international community — used uncharacteristically strong language in his statement condemning the death of Sayfollah Musallet, a young Floridian who had been visiting his family in the area.
“There must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act,” Mr. Huckabee said.
The ambassador’s demand comes amid a rise in settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank during the war with Hamas in Gaza.
Mr. Musallet was one of two Palestinian men who died in the violence near the northern West Bank town of Sinjil on Friday. The other, Mohammad Shalabi, 23, was shot during a confrontation between settlers and Palestinians, according to Palestinian health officials, though it was not clear who had shot him as armed settlers and soldiers had both been present on the scene.
The Israeli military has neither confirmed nor denied the two deaths, saying only that there had been a violent exchange between Palestinians and Israeli civilians near Sinjil, and that the domestic intelligence agency and police were looking into reported casualties. The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem has confirmed Mr. Musallet’s death, as well as his American citizenship.
Exactly how Friday’s clash unfolded is unclear. The Israeli military has said that confrontations began when Palestinians hurled stones at Israeli civilians, slightly injuring two Israelis.
Mohammad Zaban, the mayor of Mazraa al-Sharqiya, a town near Sinjil, said the violence had escalated after weeks of increased tensions in the area between settlers and Palestinians as a result of Israelis installing themselves on hilltops overlooking Sinjil on land claimed by Palestinians and confronting local residents.
Witnesses and officials in the West Bank said there had been an hourslong standoff between settlers and Palestinians and that Mr. Musallet had ended up badly wounded. The Palestinian Authority Health Ministry said in a statement that Mr. Musallet had died after he was “severely beaten” by settlers.
Mr. Musallet, born in Florida, had traveled to the West Bank in early June to spend time with his loved ones, his family said in a statement after his death. He had been “brutally beaten to death by Israeli settlers while he was protecting his family’s land from settlers who were attempting to steal it,” according to the statement.
Referring to him by his nickname, Saif, Mr. Musallet’s family said that “Israeli settlers surrounded Saif for over three hours as paramedics attempted to reach him, but the mob of settlers blocked the ambulance and paramedics from providing lifesaving aid.” His younger brother witnessed the beating but was unable to save him, and the elder sibling “died before making it to the hospital,” the statement said.
A representative for the Musallet family did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Mr. Huckabee’s statement on Tuesday or what actions U.S. officials have taken to get answers to them about the deadly incident. But the family had called on the American authorities to respond promptly.
“This is an unimaginable nightmare and injustice that no family should ever have to face,” they said in their statement following the killing. “We demand the U.S. State Department lead an immediate investigation and hold the Israeli settlers who killed Saif accountable for their crimes. We demand justice.”
Palestinian Americans say the U.S. government in the past has failed to hold Israel to account when their relatives have been killed or injured by Israeli forces.
Yesh Din, an Israeli rights group that examined more than 1,700 police investigations into offenses committed by Israelis against Palestinians in the West Bank between 2005 and 2024, found that more than 93 percent of cases were closed with no indictment filed and that 3 percent of charged cases ended in convictions.
Settler violence against Palestinians has soared in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza that was set off by a Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The Israeli military occupies the territory, where about 2.7 million Palestinians live alongside about 500,000 Israeli settlers on land that has long been viewed by the international community as meant for an eventual Palestinian state achieved in peaceful negotiations.
In recent years, the European Union, Britain and the Biden administration had all imposed sanctions on settler leaders and organizations believed to have been involved in violence against Palestinians. But President Trump revoked the U.S. sanctions shortly after his return to office, canceling a Biden-era executive order targeting those who undermined “peace, security and stability in the West Bank.”
Mr. Huckabee, who Mr. Trump named as his choice for ambassador shortly after November’s election, visited West Bank settlements frequently before his appointment and had expressed support for Israeli annexation of the territory.
Ephrat Livni is a Times reporter covering breaking news around the world. She is based in Washington.
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