Family of US Victim Demands Trump Prosecute “Israeli” Settlers

By Staff, Agencies

Relatives of Sayfollah Musallet, a US citizen from Florida beaten to death by "Israeli" settlers in the occupied West Bank, are calling for the Trump administration to arrest and prosecute those responsible for his killing.

The 20-year-old from Tampa was visiting his family in an area near Ramallah, and martyred last week trying to protect their farm from invaders, they said at an emotional press conference in Florida on Monday afternoon.

His uncle Hasem Musallet paid tribute to the “loving, respectful” boy known as Saif, decrying what the family saw as indifference from the US government over the murder of one of its citizens.

“Somebody needs to be held accountable,” he said.

"Musallet was beaten with clubs and bats, and died in the same attack that killed a 23-year-old Palestinian man. Razek Hussein al-Shalabi was shot and left to bleed to death," the Palestinian health ministry said.

Hasem Musallet said the settlers prevented ambulances from reaching the injured men, and that a brother watched Sayfollah take his last breath.

Hiba Rahim, deputy executive director of the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations [CAIR], said Musallet’s family wanted Donald Trump, and the departments of justice and state, to prosecute his killers under US law.

She also condemned a statement from the state department that said it had no comment on Musallet’s death “out of respect for the privacy of the family and loved ones during this difficult time”.

Rahim said: “We’re not asking, and his family is not asking, for silence. We’re asking for accountability.

“If Sayfollah was killed by anyone else or in another country, there would already be investigations, there would already be attempts for arrest, and calls for arrest and outrage in Washington.

“Where is the outrage from our government? Where is the accountability?”

Later on Monday in a post to X, Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to "Israel", made the first official acknowledgment by the Trump administration of Musallet’s death using his name.

“I have asked 'Israel' to aggressively investigate the murder of Saif Mussallet [sic], an American citizen who was visiting family in Sinjil when he was beaten to death,” Huckabee wrote.

“There must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act. Saif was just 20 yrs. old.”

The IOF claimed the incident happened after stones were thrown at "Israelis" and that “a violent confrontation developed” and said it was looking into the incident.

However, Rahim dismissed this, saying: “There were no clashes. These are the same lies we hear every time a guilty party is guilty of monstrous activity like what we saw with Sayfollah’s death.

“This is not an isolated tragedy. There’s a devastating pattern of Americans being killed in 'Israel', brutalized and murdered with impunity by 'Israeli' forces and settlers.”

Musallet’s death is part of a growing wave of violence by "Israeli" settlers in the West Bank. The IOF and settlers have claimed more than 1,000 Palestinians in the territory and injured at least 9,000 since October 2023.