The family of a US-Palestinian man allegedly killed in an Israeli settler attack in the West Bank has demanded that the US State Department launch a probe into his death. Police meanwhile announced Saturday that six people were arrested in connection to the incident, including two settlers and an IDF reservist.
Saif al-Din Kamil Abdul Karim Musalat was beaten to death on Friday in Sinjil, a village north of Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority health ministry said. His name was also reported as Sayafollah Musallet.
Musalat, born and based in Florida, traveled 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 PA 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.”
The Israel Defense Forces said violence flared after Palestinians threw rocks at a group of Israelis, lightly injuring two civilians.
The ensuing “violent confrontation… included vandalism of Palestinian property, arson, physical clashes and rock hurling,” the IDF said.
The ensuing “violent confrontation… included vandalism of Palestinian property, arson, physical clashes and rock hurling,” the IDF said.
Upon receiving reports of violence, the IDF said, troops and police officers were dispatched to the scene to “disperse the clash,” during which forces used riot dispersal means.
Musalat’s family said they were “devastated” at his death, describing the 20-year-old as a “kind, hard-working and deeply respected” man who was deeply connected to his Palestinian heritage.
They said he was “protecting his family’s land from settlers who were attempting to steal it.”
According to Palestinian accounts, settlers were the ones who instigated the clash when Palestinians tried to protest the establishment of a new illegal outpost adjacent to Sinjil, one of dozens that have mushroomed across the West Bank with little to no enforcement by Israeli authorities.
According to the family’s statement, settlers blocked an ambulance and paramedics from reaching Musalat as he lay injured, and he died before making it to the hospital.
His death was “an unimaginable nightmare and injustice that no family should ever have to face,” they added.
“We demand the US State Department lead an immediate investigation and hold the Israeli settlers who killed Saif accountable for their crimes. We demand justice.”
The US State Department on Saturday confirmed to AFP that an American citizen had died in the West Bank and offered its “sincerest condolences to the family and loved ones on their loss.”
The department “has no higher priority than the safety and security of US citizens overseas,” a spokesperson said, referring “questions on any investigation to the Government of Israel.”
According to a police spokesperson, among those arrested Friday were two-left wing activists and a Palestinian resident of Sinjil, with troops taking them into custody upon reaching the scene. The activists have since been released with a 15-day ban on their entry into the West Bank, while the Palestinian remains in custody.
Police later arrested the two settlers, who will be brought Saturday for a hearing on extending their remand, the spokesperson added. The IDF said the reservist, who according to police fired in the air, was released after being interrogated.
“Further information cannot be detailed at this stage,” the military said.
Police are investigating the incident alongside the the Shin Bet and Military Police, but they do not have access to the bodies of the two Palestinians, which remain with the Palestinian Authority.
Law enforcement is trying to coordinate with the PA in order to probe the matter, but have not yet received findings from Ramallah “that attest to the two having died a violent death,” said the spokesperson.
Rights groups have denounced a rise in violence committed by settlers in the West Bank, which Israel has controlled since capturing the area from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War. The United Nations has said that such attacks against Palestinians are taking place in a climate of “impunity.”
Last week, AFP journalists witnessed clashes between dozens of Israeli settlers and Palestinians in Sinjil, where Palestinians set fire to makeshift settler structures and were gearing up to march against settler attacks on nearby farmland.
Israel recently erected a high fence cutting off parts of Sinjil from Road 60, which runs through the West Bank from north to south, and which both Israelis and Palestinians use.
Violence in the West Bank has surged since the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza.
Since then, Israeli forces have arrested some 6,000 wanted Palestinians across the territory, including more than 2,350 affiliated with Hamas.
According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 950 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops, or terrorists carrying out attacks.
During the same period, 52 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another eight members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank.
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