Israeli settlers in the West Bank town of Sinjil killed two Palestinians, including a US citizen, on Friday. Axios reports that one of the victims was Saif al-Din Kamel Abdul Karim Musallat, a 20-year-old man who was born in Florida. A spokesman for the Palestinian National Authority told Agence France-Presse that Musallat “died after being severely beaten all over his body by settlers.” He was killed after a group of Palestinians attempted to access their land, which was near a settler outpost.
“The young man was injured and remained so for four hours. The army prevented us from reaching him and did not allow us to take him away,” said a man from a nearby village. “When we finally managed to reach him, he was taking his last breath.”
The IDF claims that the violence first broke out when Palestinian “terrorists” threw rocks at Israeli civilians near the village. The Israeli military says that the ensuing clashes resulted in “vandalism of Palestinian property, arson, physical clashes, and stone-throwing (against the Palestinian civilians).” It added that Israeli police are investigating the deaths.
This is not the first time that violence has broken out in Sinjil. A week ago, Palestinian plans to march against the construction of settlements near their farmland led to clashes between dozens of Palestinian villagers and Israeli settlers. According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, local residents burned down an Israeli grazing outpost west of the town. The Times of Israel reported that they also destroyed two or three of the settlers’ makeshift huts. The settlers attacked the town, wounding three Palestinians. They also smashed windows and slashed tires.
The White House has yet to directly comment on the killings. The Department of State told Axios that it “has no higher priority than the safety and security of US citizens overseas.”
Musallat’s death marks the second time a US citizen has been killed in the West Bank since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January. Days after he took office, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced that it was eliminating economic sanctions against individuals and organizations involved in illegal West Bank settlement activity, including violence against the native Palestinian population. It also removed the Israeli settlers from its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List. Among the US officials who pushed for the move was Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX).
