Sayfollah Musallet was a brother, a son and an bold younger man who was simply initially of his life.
That’s the message his household has repeated since July 11, when the 20-year-old United States citizen was overwhelmed to demise by Israeli settlers within the village of Sinjil within the occupied West Financial institution.
That message, they hope, will forestall the Florida-born Sayfollah from turning into “simply one other quantity” within the rising checklist of Palestinian People whose killings by no means discover justice.
That’s why his cousin, Fatmah Muhammad, took a second amid her grief on Wednesday to recollect the issues she liked about Sayfollah.
The 2 united over a ardour for meals, and Muhammad, knowledgeable baker, remembers how rigorously Sayfollah would serve the fragile knafeh pastry she bought by way of the ice cream store he ran in Tampa.
“Simply in the way in which he plated my dessert, he made it look so good,” Muhammad, 43, recalled. “I even advised him he did a greater job than me.”
“That basically confirmed the kind of particular person he was,” she added. “He needed to do issues with excellence.”
‘The love he gave all of us’
Born and raised in Port Charlotte, a coastal neighborhood in south central Florida, Sayfollah – nicknamed Saif – maintained a deep connection to his ancestral roots overseas.
He spent a big portion of his teenage years within the occupied West Financial institution, the place his two brothers and sister additionally lived. There, his mother and father, who personal a house close to Sinjil, hoped he may higher join along with his tradition and language.
However after ending highschool, Sayfollah was wanting to return to the US to strive his hand at entrepreneurship. Final yr, he, his father and his cousins opened the dessert store in Tampa, Florida, playfully named Ice Screamin.
However the ice cream store was just the start. Sayfollah’s ambition left a deep impression on Muhammad.
“He had his imaginative and prescient to broaden the enterprise, to multiply it by many,” she mentioned, her voice at occasions shaking with grief. “This at 20, when most youngsters are taking part in video video games.”
“And the loopy factor is, any aim that he set his thoughts to, he all the time did it,” she added. “He all the time exceeded everybody’s expectations, particularly with the love he gave all of us.”
Sayfollah’s aunt, 58-year-old Samera Musallet, additionally remembers his dedication to his household. She described Sayfollah as a loving younger man who by no means let his aunts pay for something in his presence – and who all the time insisted on bringing dessert when he got here for dinner.
On the similar time, Samera mentioned he was nonetheless youthful and fun-loving: He appreciated to observe comedy motion pictures, store for garments and make late-night journeys to the WaWa comfort retailer.
One in every of her fondest reminiscences got here when Sayfollah was solely 14, they usually went collectively to a baseball recreation that includes the Kansas Metropolis Royals.
“Once we bought there, he may scent the popcorn and all the new canine. He purchased all the things he may see and mentioned, ‘We’re going to share!’” she advised Al Jazeera.
“After he ate all that junk meals, we rotated, and he was sleeping. I woke him up when the sport was over, and he goes: ‘Who gained?’”
‘I actually wish to get married’
One other certainly one of his aunts, 52-year-old Katie Salameh, remembers that Sayfollah’s thoughts had turned to marriage within the ultimate months of his younger life
Because the Florida spring gave approach to summer time, Sayfollah had introduced plans to return to the West Financial institution to see his mom and siblings. However he confided to Salameh that he had another excuse for returning.
“The final time I noticed him was we had a household wedding ceremony, and that was the weekend of Memorial Day [in May],” Salameh advised Al Jazeera.
“I requested him: ‘Are you so excited to see your siblings and your mother?’ He mentioned, ‘Oh my god, I’m so excited.’ Then he goes, ‘I actually wish to get married. I’m going to search for a bride after I’m there.’”
To maintain the ice cream store working easily, Sayfollah had organized a swap along with his father: He would return to the West Financial institution whereas his father would journey to Tampa to thoughts the enterprise.
However that call would unwittingly put Sayfollah’s father greater than 10,000 kilometres away from his son when violent Israeli settlers surrounded him, as witnesses and his household would later recount.
Israeli authorities mentioned the assault in Sinjil started with rock-throwing and “violent clashes … between Palestinians and Israeli civilians”, a declare Sayfollah’s household and witnesses have rejected.
As an alternative, they mentioned Sayfollah was attempting to guard his household’s land when he was encircled by a “mob of settlers” who beat him.
Even when an ambulance was referred to as, Sayfollah’s household mentioned the settlers blocked the paramedics from reaching his damaged physique. Sayfollah’s youthful brother would in the end assist carry his dying brother to emergency responders.
The settlers additionally fatally shot Mohammed al-Shalabi, a 23-year-old Palestinian man, who witnesses mentioned was left bleeding for hours.
“His telephone was on, and he wasn’t responding,” his mom, Joumana al-Shalabi, advised reporters. “He was lacking for six hours. They discovered him martyred beneath the tree. They beat him and shot him with bullets.”
Palestinians can not legally possess firearms within the occupied West Financial institution, however Israeli settlers can. The Israeli authorities itself has inspired the settlers to bear arms, together with by way of the distribution of rifles to civilians.
The Workplace of the United Nations Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has recorded the killings of a minimum of 964 Palestinians by the hands of Israeli forces and settlers within the occupied West Financial institution since October 7, 2023.
And the violence seems to be on the rise. The OHCHR famous that there was a 13-percent improve within the variety of killings in the course of the first six months of 2025, in contrast with the identical interval final yr.
‘Ache I can’t even describe’
An Al Jazeera evaluation additionally discovered that Israeli forces and settlers have killed a minimum of 9 US residents since 2022, together with veteran reporter Shireen Abu Akleh.
None of these deaths have resulted in legal fees, with Washington usually counting on Israel to conduct its personal investigations.
To this point, US President Donald Trump has in a roundabout way addressed Sayfollah’s killing. When requested within the Oval Workplace in regards to the deadly beating, Trump deferred to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“We shield all Americans wherever on this planet, particularly in the event that they’re unjustly murdered or killed,” Rubio replied on Trump’s behalf. “We’re gathering extra data.”
Rubio additionally pointed to a statement issued a day earlier from the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee. The ambassador called on Israel to “aggressively examine” the assault, saying “there should be accountability for this legal and terrorist act”.
It was a very jarring sentiment from Huckabee, who has been a vocal supporter of Israel’s unlawful settlements within the West Financial institution and has even denied the very existence of a Palestinian folks.
Nonetheless, no unbiased, US-led investigation has been introduced.
In line with Israeli media, three Israeli settlers, together with a army reservist, had been taken into custody following the lethal assault, however all had been subsequently launched.
It has solely been 4 days since Sayfollah’s killing, and his household advised Al Jazeera the preliminary shock has solely now begun to dissipate.
However instead has come a flood of grief and anger. Muhammad nonetheless struggles to simply accept that he “died as a result of he was on his personal land”. She sees Sayfollah’s demise as a part of a broader sample of abuses, whether or not within the West Financial institution or in Gaza, the place Israel has led a warfare since 2023.
“I see it on the information on a regular basis with different folks within the West Financial institution. I see it in Gaza – the indiscriminate killing of anyone of their means,” she mentioned.
“However when it occurs to you, it’s simply so onerous to even fathom,” she added. “It’s ache I can’t even describe.”
