Sayfollah Musallet was a brother, a son and an formidable younger man who was simply at the start 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 changing into “simply one other quantity” within the rising checklist of Palestinian Individuals 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 beloved about Sayfollah.
The 2 united over a ardour for meals, and Muhammad, knowledgeable baker, remembers how fastidiously Sayfollah would serve the fragile knafeh pastry she offered via 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 actually confirmed the kind of individual 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 group 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 dad and mom, who personal a house close to Sinjil, hoped he might higher join along with his tradition and language.
However after ending highschool, Sayfollah was desirous to return to the US to attempt his hand at entrepreneurship. Final 12 months, he, his father and his cousins opened the dessert store in Tampa, Florida, playfully named Ice Screamin.
However the ice cream store was only the start. Sayfollah’s ambition left a deep impression on Muhammad.
“He had his imaginative and prescient to develop the enterprise, to multiply it by many,” she stated, her voice at occasions shaking with grief. “This at 20, when most children are enjoying 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 identical time, Samera stated 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, and so they went collectively to a baseball sport that includes the Kansas Metropolis Royals and the Tampa Bay Rays.
“After we obtained there, he might odor the popcorn and all the new canine. He purchased every part he might see and stated, ‘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 received?’”
‘I actually need to get married’
One other one among 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 season, 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 one more reason for returning.
“The final time I noticed him was we had a household marriage 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 stated, ‘Oh my god, I’m so excited.’ Then he goes, ‘I actually need 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 change 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 stated 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 stated Sayfollah was making an attempt to guard his household’s land when he was encircled by a “mob of settlers” who beat him.
Even when an ambulance was known as, Sayfollah’s household stated the settlers blocked the paramedics from reaching his damaged physique. Sayfollah’s youthful brother would finally assist carry his dying brother to emergency responders.
The settlers additionally fatally shot Mohammed al-Shalabi, a 23-year-old Palestinian man, who witnesses stated 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 underneath 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 via the distribution of rifles to civilians.
The Workplace of the United Nations Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has recorded the killings of at the very least 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 12 months.
‘Ache I can’t even describe’
An Al Jazeera evaluation additionally discovered that Israeli forces and settlers have killed at the very least 9 US residents since 2022, together with veteran reporter Shireen Abu Akleh.
None of these deaths have resulted in felony fees, with Washington sometimes counting on Israel to conduct its personal investigations.
To date, 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 anyplace on the earth, 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 assertion issued a day earlier from the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee. The ambassador known as on Israel to “aggressively examine” the assault, saying “there have to be accountability for this felony 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 individuals.
However, no impartial, US-led investigation has been introduced.
In keeping with Israeli media, three Israeli settlers, together with a army reservist, have been taken into custody following the lethal assault, however all have 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 as a replacement 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 conflict since 2023.
“I see it on the information on a regular basis with different individuals within the West Financial institution. I see it in Gaza – the indiscriminate killing of anyone of their means,” she stated.
“However when it occurs to you, it’s simply so onerous to even fathom,” she added. “It’s ache I can’t even describe.”
