Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya, West Bank
CNN
—
Saif Musallet was just weeks away from celebrating his 21st birthday, and as he visited his family here, the Florida native’s thoughts began to turn toward marriage.
“I think it’s time for me to get married,” Musallet told his father, Kamel, during a phone call last week. “Hopefully while I’m here, I’m able to find a future spouse to get engaged to.”
That phone call would be Kamel’s last conversation with his son. Days later, Saif was beaten to death by Israeli settlers, according to his family and eyewitnesses.
Musallet was one of two men killed that day by settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, while they were in the neighboring town of Sinjil, where their families own farmland.
Hundreds turned out on Sunday, braving the afternoon sun, for the funeral processions of the two men, carrying their bodies to their final resting place. Some mourners openly wept, burying their faces in the Palestinian flags wrapped around the bodies.
They are among nearly 1,000 Palestinians who have been killed by the Israeli military or settlers since the region erupted into war on October 7, 2023, according to the United Nations.
Their deaths mark the latest escalation in settler attacks in Sinjil, where Palestinian residents say settlers have encroached on their land over the last two months and terrorized Palestinians.
Musallet was among dozens of Palestinians who drove to Sinjil together after Friday prayers seeking to reach their land. They say they were attacked by settlers wielding rocks, clubs and guns.
Amid it all, a group of settlers came down on Musallet, beating him with sticks or clubs, eyewitnesses told CNN.
Musallet’s younger brother managed to reach him and called for help. He said Musallet was unconscious, but still breathing and needed an ambulance.
But for at least two hours, no ambulance could reach him. Settlers were still roaming the area and had already shattered the windshield of an ambulance that day. On the other side, the Israeli military was firing tear gas to disperse the crowd of Palestinians and refusing to allow the ambulances to pass for hours.
By the time the ambulance reached Musallet, his face was blue, and he had stopped breathing.
“Nobody could get to him,” Musallet’s father, Kamel, said.
He now says he holds the Israeli military just as responsible for his son’s death as the settlers who beat him.
“They prevented the ambulance and allowed the settlers to do what they do anytime they want to,” Kamel Musallet said. “I hold the Israeli military just as responsible as the settlers and the American government for not doing anything about this. You know, why are you not telling the IDF? Why are you not preventing settler terrorism?”
The Israeli military has said it is investigating Musallet’s death but did not respond to allegations that it prevented ambulances from reaching him.
The Musallet family has called on the United States to investigate Musallet’s killing. Beyond a condolence call from the US consulate, Kamel Musallet said he has heard nothing more from the Trump administration, which earlier this year lifted sanctions on Israeli settlers imposed by the previous administration.
Following publication of this report, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee called on Tuesday for an aggressive Israeli investigation into the killing. Huckabee called Musallet’s death a “criminal and terrorist act,” but stopped short of committing to an American investigation.
“I have asked Israel to aggressively investigate the murder of Saif Musallet, an American citizen who was visiting family in Sinjil when he was beaten to death,” Huckabee said in a post on X.
Saif Musallet was born and raised in Port Charlotte, Florida and owned an ice cream shop with his father in Tampa, where his father said Saif’s “gentle soul” shone through.
“Everyone loved him. Everyone loved Saif,” his father said.
But Kamel Musallet says he believes there is a double-standard – that the US government would be taking his son’s killing more seriously if he were American-Israeli.
“We want justice. We want the American-Israeli and the American-Palestinian to be in the same class,” Kamel Musallet said. “These are Americans. But for some reason, the American-Palestinian is differentiated from the American-Israeli.”
Hafez Abdel Jabbar, who is also a US citizen, was among the Palestinians on the scene that day. He said settlers and soldiers prevented ambulances from reaching Musallet for hours, until a vehicle with officers from COGAT, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, showed up and agreed to escort him through.
Abdel Jabbar believes Musallet could have been saved had they been allowed through earlier.
“Oh yes, of course,” Abdel Jabbar said. “From the first minute, from the first call … he was breathing.”
CNN witnessed settler violence in Sinjil first-hand on Sunday, when we came under attack from a group of settlers who smashed the window of our vehicle.
As Abdel Jabbar drove CNN to the site where he found Musallet’s unconscious body, a white car began following the team.
Inside were a group of at least four settlers, who covered their faces as they began pursuing our vehicle.
As we approached a nearby intersection, the settlers got out of their car and tried to pelt our vehicle, but then turned around as CNN approached a nearby Israeli border police vehicle.
The border police unit immediately headed out to search for the settlers after being alerted by CNN.
But minutes later, our team was ambushed. The settlers had hidden out of sight of the border police and attacked.
One assailant wielding some sort of club or mallet struck CNN’s vehicle, shattering the rear window as our team sped off. Israel police said they opened “a proactive investigation in pursuit of justice” into the attack and that such incidents are treated “extremely seriously.”
“If it would’ve taken us five more seconds, we all would’ve been beaten,” Abdel Jabbar said.
But for Abdel Jabbar, it is just a taste of the grim reality he is forced to face in the West Bank. His son, Tawfic, was killed in January 2024 by an Israeli settler.
“You scream to the whole world and the whole world is watching – simply silent – seeing all these mothers put their sons that they worked so hard to raise them up for 20 years,” Abdel Jabbar said. “And you pick them up when you put them in the ground, under the sky. And the silence goes on and on and on.”
“What hurts you deeply is the silence of the whole world.”
This story has been updated with additional developments.
