Some U.S. politicians on opposite ends of the political spectrum this week denounced the killing last week of a Palestinian-American man from Florida in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Family members and Palestinian officials said 20-year-old Sayfollah Musallet was beaten to death by illegal Israeli settlers.
The U.S. ambassador to Israel, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, demanded “accountability for this criminal and terrorist act.”
“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 wrote Tuesday. “There must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act. Saif was just 20 yrs old.”
Musallet, who family calls him Saif, was born and raised in Florida and started an ice cream business in Tampa in recent years. He was visiting family in the West Bank, relatives said at a news conference in Tampa on Monday. His younger brother carried him to the hospital after settlers blocked an ambulance and paramedics, the family said in a statement last week demanding the State Department lead its own investigation into the murder.
“Saif was 20 years old,” his family said. “He was born in Florida and was a beloved member of his community. Saif was a brother and a son, just starting the prime of his life.”
He was the fifth U.S. citizen killed by Israeli settlers or military forces in the West Bank since the war in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023, according to PBS and Zeteo.
A second Palestinian man, 23-year-old Mohammed al-Shalabi, was shot in the chest and killed during the attack on the village, local health authorities said.
The West Bank, the larger of the two Palestinian territories divided geographically by the Israeli state, has seen increased settler violence in the 21 months since the Israel-Hamas war began. U.N. human rights officials have documented nearly 1,000 Palestinians killed by both settlers and the Israeli military since the war in Gaza began. That conflict has now seen at least 58,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli attacks, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, as starvation and disease ravages the territory.
CNN journalists who went to investigate Musallet’s death and speak to his relatives in the West Bank were attacked by settlers this week.
While President Donald Trump and his top diplomat to Israel are adamant allies of Israel and the settler movement — Trump removed sanctions on Israeli settlements days after returning to the White House in January and Huckabee has a long history of promoting and collaborating with Israeli settlements in the West Bank both through his evangelical ministry and as a public official — the brutal killing of an American was apparently a step too far.
Trump was asked about the killing in the Oval Office on Wednesday but appeared to not understand the question and deferred to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who pointed to Huckabee’s comments that said the U.S. is “gathering more information” and vowed to protect U.S. citizens abroad.
Musallet’s father told Zeteo that Huckabee called him to express his condolences and said the ambassador told him he met directly with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to press him for justice. Huckabee’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the call Thursday. On Wednesday, the ambassador attended Netanyahu’s corruption trial to offer his support and compared the Israeli prime minister’s criminal prosecutions to those Trump faced in recent years.
The Israeli military said it was investigating confrontation between Palestinians and Israelis in the village of Sinjil, but settlers accused of violence are prosecuted in extremely rare cases, according to the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din and U.N. human rights officials.
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce, at a briefing on Wednesday, declined to echo Huckabee’s characterization of the attack as a “terrorist act” when asked if that was the department’s stance. She said while the Trump administration was “greatly concerned when any U.S. citizen is harmed overseas” and “calls for accountability in all cases where U.S. citizens are harmed abroad,” the U.S. would not be launching its own investigation into Musallet’s killing as it awaits the results of the Israeli probe.
“We’ve urged them to do an investigation aggressively and to finalize that investigation so that we all know what has occurred,” Bruce said. “I’m not going to speculate on what may or may not happen once that investigation is complete, but we need to wait and let them do that and find out what they ascertain.”
Denouncements of Musallet’s killing in the U.S. came largely from Democrats in Congress. On Tuesday, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said the killing was “shocking and appalling” and demanded Israel “thoroughly investigate this killing and hold any and all settlers responsible for the brutal death of Mr. Musallet accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
“The rise in violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank directed at Palestinian civilians is completely and totally unacceptable,” Jeffries said in a statement. “The Trump administration cannot continue to turn a blind eye to what is happening in the West Bank if it is truly committed to finding a just and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinian people.”
Florida Rep. Kathy Castor, a Democrat in the Tampa Bay area, said she was “heartbroken by the brutal killing,” praised Jeffries’ call for an Israeli investigation and urged “all Florida representatives, senators, Secretary of State [Rubio] and the President to demand full accountability for the attack on Floridian Musallet.”
Other Democrats, including Pennsylvania Rep. Summer Lee and Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost, echoed the family of Musallet’s call for a U.S.-led investigation. Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American in Congress, demanded an end of U.S. arms and aid to Israel.
“An American was beaten to death by Israeli settlers backed by the military,” Tlaib wrote on social media. “Instead of pursuing justice for Sayfollah, our government continues to send billions to prop up the apartheid system that killed him and kills Palestinians like him every day.”
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson — all of whom met with Netanyahu during his visit to Washington last week — did not return requests for comment on Musallet’s killing. None have commented publicly on his death.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, also declined to comment earlier this week on the death of his constituent.
