Latest news with #SayfollahMusallet
Middle East Eye
22 minutes ago
- Middle East Eye
Uncle describes Palestinian-American citizen beaten to death by Israeli settlers as 'loving'
The uncle of 20-year American citizen Sayfollah Musallet, who was beaten to death by Israeli settlers on Friday, described him as 'a very rare soul' during a press conference in Tampa on Monday. 'Saif was a very rare soul,' Hesam Musallet said. 'He was very loving and caring. He would come to my house always, come to his grandmother, give her a hug, kiss her hand. 'Everyone who met him fell in love with him. He was loving and respectful.' Hesam said he was 'like any other 20-year-old, who would go out with his friends, and watch comedy'. Sayfollah was badly beaten by Israeli settlers in the village of Sinji, just north of the West Bank city of Ramallah. Hesam said 'illegal Israeli settlers' and the Israeli military stopped an ambulance coming to help his nephew for three hours. His brother witnessed him take his last breath and said he was 'gagging because of the pain', Hesam added.
Gulf Today
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Gulf Today
No peace in sight as heavy bombing kills more in Gaza
Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip killed at least 43 people on Sunday, including eight children at a water collection point, while the Palestinian death toll passed 58,000 after 21 months of war, local health officials said. Israel and Hamas appeared no closer to a breakthrough in indirect talks meant to pause the war and free some Israeli hostages after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Washington visit last week. A new sticking point has emerged over Israeli troops ' deployment during a ceasefire. Israel says it will end the war only once Hamas surrenders, disarms and goes into exile, something it refuses to do. Hamas says it is willing to free all the remaining 50 hostages, about 20 said to be alive, in exchange for an end to the war and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces. Throughout the war in Gaza, violence has surged in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Funerals were held there on Sunday for two Palestinians, including Palestinian-American Sayfollah Musallet, killed by Israeli settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. A view shows an explosion in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border, on Sunday. Reuters Civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said at least 43 people were killed in the latest Israeli strikes, including 11 when a market in Gaza City was hit. Elsewhere, eight children were among the 10 victims of a drone strike at a water point in the Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza, Bassal said. In central Gaza, officials at Al Awda Hospital said it received 10 bodies after an Israeli strike on a water collection point in nearby Nuseirat. Among the dead were six children. Ramadan Nassar, a witness who lives in the area, told The Associated Press that around 20 children and 14 adults had been lined up to get water. He said Palestinians walk some 2 kilometres to fetch water from the area. In Nuseirat, a small boy leaned over a body bag to say goodbye to a friend. 'There is no safe place,' resident Raafat Fanouna said as some people went over the rubble with sticks and bare hands. Younis Ebrahim carries the body of his 13-year-old nephew Seraje Ebrahim, killed in an Israeli strike on a drinking water distribution point, for burial outside Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, on Sunday. AP Separately, health officials said an Israeli strike hit a group of citizens walking in the street on Sunday afternoon in central Gaza City, killing 11 people and injuring around 30 others. Dr Ahmed Qandil, who specialises in general surgery, was among those killed, Gaza's Health Ministry said. A ministry spokesperson, Zaher Al Wahidi, told the AP that Qandil had been on his way to Al Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital. In the central town of Zawaida, an Israeli strike on a home killed nine, including two women and three children, officials at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said. Gaza's Health Ministry says women and children make up more than half of the over 58,000 dead in the war. The ministry, under Gaza's Hamas-run government, doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count. The UN and other international organisations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties. Early on Sunday morning, a missile hit a house in Gaza City where a family had moved to after receiving an evacuation order from their home in the southern outskirts. 'My aunt, her husband and the children, are gone. What is the fault of the children who died in an ugly bloody massacre at dawn?' said Anas Matar, standing in the rubble of the building. 'They came here, and they were hit. There is no safe place in Gaza,' he said. NEW GAZA-BOUND AID BOAT: A Gaza-bound boat carrying pro-Palestinian activists and humanitarian aid left Sicily on Sunday, over a month after Israel detained and deported people aboard a previous vessel. The Handala, operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, left the port of Syracuse shortly after 12:00pm, an AFP journalist saw, carrying about fifteen activists. Several dozen people, some holding Palestinian flags and others wearing keffiyeh scarves, gathered at the port to cheer the boat's departure with cries of 'Free Palestine.' The former Norwegian trawler — loaded with medical supplies, food, children's equipment and medicine — will sail for about a week in the Mediterranean, covering roughly 1,800 kilometres (1,120 miles), in the hope of reaching Gaza's coast. People gather around the Freedom Flotilla ship "Handala" ahead of the boat's departure for Gaza at a port in Syracuse, Sicily, southern Italy, on Sunday. AFP US-Palestinian man has been killed in an Israeli settler attack in the occupied West Bank, his family said, demanding that Washington 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 health ministry said. Musalat, born and based in Florida, travelled 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 Palestinian 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.' Agencies
Irish Times
8 hours ago
- 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'.
Times of Oman
13 hours ago
- Politics
- Times of Oman
West Bank: Deadly Israeli settler attack on Palestinians
Ramallah: A school courtyard in al-Mazra'a al-Sharqiya, a town in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has been transformed into a large mourning tent after two young men were killed in what their families describe as the latest attack by Israeli settlers. Twenty-year-old Sayfollah Musallet, a US citizen from Florida, was beaten to death and Mohammed al-Shalabi, 23, was shot during Friday's attack, their families said. Residents say the settlers blocked efforts to help the dying youths. Razek Hassan al-Shalabi, Mohammad's father, sat among the town's inhabitants and relatives who came to mourn the young men at the school. "In the morning he told me he wanted to get married," he told DW. "He talked about starting a family, and now we bury him." Across the street, at the Musallet home, women gathered to support the family in their grief. Saif, as Sayfollah was nicknamed, had arrived in June from his hometown, Tampa, to spend the summer with relatives in the town, which is roughly 20 kilometers (12 miles) northeast of Ramallah. "He was like a little brother," Diana Halum, a cousin who is acting as the family's spokesperson, told DW. "We travelled together, back and forth from the States to Palestine. He came here to visit his cousins, his friends." "Not in a million years did we think something so tragic would happen," Halum said. "And it's just, it's the way they killed him, too. I mean, he was lynched by aggressive, illegal Israeli settlers, and left there for hours." On Friday, the family released a statement saying medics had tried to reach Musallet for three hours before his brother managed to carry him to an ambulance. He died before they could make it to the hospital. "This is an unimaginable nightmare and injustice that no family should ever have to face," the family said. "We demand the US State Department lead an immediate investigation and hold the Israeli settlers who killed Saif accountable for their crimes." The State Department says it is aware of reports of a death of a US citizen in the West Bank. Officials declined to comment further "out of respect for the privacy of the family" but said the department was ready "to provide consular services." 'A daily reality' in the West Bank The youths had gathered with others following Friday's noon prayers to show their presence in the fields where, just weeks ago, settlers attacked residents who had organized a march to protest settler violence and attempts to seize the land. In an initial statement following Friday's attack, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) claimed that "terrorists hurled rocks at Israeli civilians," leading to a "violent confrontation" that included "the vandalism of Palestinian property, arson, physical clashes and rock hurling." The IDF acknowledged reports that at least one Palestinian had been killed and a number injured and claimed that the incident would be "looked into." The families say the youths' bodies showed signs of torture. In response to an inquiry from DW, the IDF referred to its earlier statement and added that "following the incident, a joint investigation was launched by the Israel Police and the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division." It was just the latest violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. Since the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, in southern Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza, such attacks have become "a daily reality," according to the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs. Between January 2024 and May 2025, OCHA has documented over 2,070 settler attacks, resulting in casualties and property damage in the West Bank. Settlers regularly raid villages or install illegal outposts to harass and threaten Palestinians, often in the presence of Israeli soldiers or police who do not interfere. Israeli rights groups and Palestinians report that settlers have been recruited as reservists. West Bank | Al-Mazra'a a-Sharqiya Shock, grief, resignation For several hours following the attack, Razek Hassan al-Shalabi said, he had believed that his son Mohammed was in IDF custody. When he discovered that evening that the information was incorrect, local residents searched for Mohammed. According to the family and the Palestinian Health Ministry, they found him severely beaten and shot in the back. Friends of the two young men gathered at the school on Saturday, looking shocked. Iyad, who declined to give his surname, said that his cousin Saif and Mohammed were in the same friendship group and used to hang out together. "They were always the ones that would cheer everyone up, they never brought you down, if you needed them, they were always there," Iyad told DW. A young Palestinian American himself, Iyad said people in the occupied West Bank also believed that Israeli settlers carried out their attacks with a sense of impunity. He said the United States rarely intervened on the behalf of people who were the victims of such attacks or their families. "Sadly this only got attention because Saif has American citizenship. This isn't the first time this happened, multiple US citizens have been killed either by Israeli citizens or Israeli soldiers and I think that there should definitely be a change in it and they [the US administration] should do something about it because honestly ... I am lost for words." Iyad, who is from California, was also visiting for the summer. "It is sad people have to be cautious in their own land, it is sad that every time Palestinians leave their home they are at risk," he said. Three other young Palestinian Americans have been killed in the occupied West Bank since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023. Their cases, which involved Israeli soldiers and settlers, remain unresolved. "It makes you feel hopeless, it makes you sad. Here in the village, we deal with this on a daily basis," Hafeth Abdel Jabbar told DW about the latest killings. His 17-year-old son, Tawfiq, a US citizen from Louisiana, was shot and killed in 2024 near the town and until now, no one was charged for the crime. "The crazy thing is that our government is supporting such a regime with racists and extremists that are supporting these settlers, and it's okay to do that to us, they treat us like we're not human beings. That's what flips your mind," Abdel Jabbar said. While the previous US administration issued sanctions against some radical settlers, these were rescinded by President Donald Trump shortly after taking office. Razek Hassan al-Shalabi said he was not confident that his many questions surrounding Mohammed's death would ever be answered by the Israeli authorities. He was trying to keep himself together for the young men's joint funeral on Sunday. "We weren't just father and son," he said. "We were friends." Overwhelmed by grief, he was unable to finish his thought.
Al Arabiya
16 hours ago
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Anger turns towards Washington in West Bank town mourning two men killed by settlers
Frustration among Palestinians grew towards the United States on Sunday as mourners packed the roads to a cemetery in the Israeli-occupied West Bank town of Al-Mazr'a Ash-Sharqiya for the burial of two men, one of them a Palestinian American, killed by settlers. Palestinian health authorities and witnesses said Sayfollah Musallet, 21, was beaten to death, and Hussein Al-Shalabi, 23, was shot in the chest by settlers during a confrontation on Friday night. Most of the small town's roughly 3,000 residents share family ties to the United States and many hold citizenship, including Musallet, who was killed weeks after flying to visit his mother in Al-Mazr'a Ash-Sharqiya, where he traveled most summers from Tampa, Florida. 'There's no accountability,' said his father Kamel Musallet, who flew from the United States to bury his son. 'We demand the United States government do something about it ... I don't want his death to go in vain.' Israeli killings of US citizens in the West Bank in recent years include those of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, Palestinian American teenager Omar Mohammad Rabea and Turkish American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi. A US State Department spokesperson said on Friday it was aware of the latest death, but that the department had no further comment 'out of respect for the privacy of the family and loved ones' of the victim. Many family and community members said they expected more, including that the United States would spearhead an investigation into who was responsible. A US State Department spokesperson on Sunday referred questions on an investigation to the Israeli government and said it 'has no higher priority than the safety and security of US citizens overseas.' The Israeli military had earlier said Israel was probing the incident. It said confrontations between Palestinians and settlers broke out after Palestinians threw rocks at Israelis, lightly injuring them. 'Betrayal' Musallet's family said medics tried to reach him for three hours before his brother managed to carry him to an ambulance, but he died before reaching the hospital. Local resident Domi, 18, who has lived in Al-Mazr'a Ash-Sharqiya for the last four years after moving back from the United States, said fears had spread in the community since Friday and his parents had discussed sending him to the United States. 'If people have sons like this they are going to want to send them back to America because it's just not safe for them,' he said. He had mixed feelings about returning, saying he wanted to stay near his family's land, which they had farmed for generations, and that Washington should do more to protect Palestinians in the West Bank. 'It's a kind of betrayal,' he said. Settler violence in the West Bank has risen since the start of Israel's war against Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza in late 2023, according to rights groups. Dozens of Israelis have also been killed in Palestinian street attacks in recent years and the Israeli military has intensified raids across the West Bank. Around 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 war. US President Donald Trump in January rescinded sanctions imposed by the former Biden administration on Israeli settler groups and individuals accused of being involved in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. Malik, 18, who used to visit Musallet's ice-cream shop in Tampa and had returned to the West Bank for a few months' vacation, said his friend's death had made him question his sense of belonging. 'I was born and raised in America, I only come here two months of a 12-month year, if I die like that nobody's going to be charged for my murder,' he said, standing in the cemetery shortly before his friend was buried. 'No one's going to be held accountable.'
