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 loss of life by Israeli settlers within the village of Sinjil within the occupied West Financial institution.
That message, they hope, will stop 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 beloved 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 offered by way of the ice cream store he ran in Tampa.
“Simply in the best way he plated my dessert, he made it look so good,” Muhammad, 43, recalled. “I even instructed 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 desperate to return to the US to strive his hand at entrepreneurship. Final 12 months, he, his father and his cousins opened the dessert store in Tampa, Florida, playfully named Ice Screamin.
Sayfollah Musallet poses for a household photograph along with his grandmother and uncle (Picture courtesy of household)
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 increase the enterprise, to multiply it by many,” she mentioned, her voice at instances 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 at all times did it,” she added. “He at all times 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 at all times insisted on bringing dessert when he got here for dinner.
On the identical time, Samera mentioned he was nonetheless youthful and fun-loving: He favored to observe comedy motion pictures, store for garments and make late-night journeys to the WaWa comfort retailer.
Certainly one of her fondest reminiscences got here when Sayfollah was solely 14, they usually went collectively to a baseball sport that includes the Kansas Metropolis Royals and the Tampa Bay Rays.
“Once we acquired there, he might odor the popcorn and all the new canines. He purchased all the things he might see and mentioned, ‘We’re going to share!’” she instructed 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 wish to get married’
One other one in all his aunts, 52-year-old Katie Salameh, remembers that Sayfollah’s thoughts had turned to marriage within the last months of his younger life
Because the Florida spring gave method 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 Might),” Salameh instructed 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 once I’m there.’”
To maintain the ice cream store operating 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 a substitute, they mentioned 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 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, instructed reporters. “He was lacking for six hours. They discovered him martyred below the tree. They beat him and shot him with bullets.”
Palestinians can’t 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 no less than 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 enhance within the variety of killings throughout 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 no less than 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.
Thus far, US President Donald Trump has circuitously addressed Sayfollah’s killing. When requested within the Oval Workplace concerning 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 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 unbiased, US-led investigation has been introduced.
Mourners cowl the graves of Mohammed al-Shalabi and Sayfollah Musallet in al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya (Leo Correa/AP Picture)
In response to 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 instructed 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 loss of life 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 struggle 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 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.”
