Washington, DC – The family of Sayfollah Musallet, the American citizen who was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the West Bank occupied last week, calls for justice.
The relatives of Musallet want Washington to launch its own investigation into the incident to ensure responsibility.
The 20 -year -old born in Florida is the ninth American citizen to kill by Israeli settlers or soldiers since 2022. None of the previous cases has led to criminal accusations or American sanctions against the authors.
This lack of response is what defenders call a “model of impunity”, in which Washington demands a probe without exerting significant pressure on Israel to produce results.
In the case of Musallet, the administration of President Donald Trump urged Israel to investigate “aggressively” in the murder.
“There must be responsibility for this criminal and terrorist act,” American ambassador in Israel said Mike Huckabee on Tuesday.
It is not clear if the United States has taken other measures to seek justice in the aftermath of the fatal blows.
Critics say that the “model of impunity” follows in part from the historically close ties between the United States and Israel. Successive presidential administrations in the United States have confirmed its “unshakable” support to Israel, and the United States provide Israel from billions of dollars in military aid each year.
Here, Tel Aviv Tribune looks at who were the other eight victims, how the United States responded to its murder and position.
Omar Assad
Assad, a 78 -year -old American Palestinian, returned home to the occupied West Bank after visiting friends on January 12, 2022, when Israeli soldiers arrested him at a checkpoint.
According to the autopsy report and the story of his family, the troops pulled Assad from his car, then handcuffed, gagged and blindfolded, letting him die on a cold construction site.
The administration of the president at the time, Joe Biden, called on Israel to launch a criminal investigation into the incident.
But Assad’s loved ones and legislators from his original Milwaukee state wanted Washington to conduct his own investigation – a request that has never materialized.
As is often the case, Israel’s investigation into the conduct of its own soldiers has led to no criminal accusation.
In 2023, the Israeli army said it found no “causal link” between the way his soldiers treated Assad and his death.
Biden administration has also refused to apply sanctions under American law to the Israeli unit which killed Assad: the Netzah Yehuda, a notorious battalion for its abuses against the Palestinians in the West Bank.
Last year, the United States Department of State announced that the battalion would still be eligible for American aid under the Leahy law, which prohibits military assistance to the security units involved in human rights violations.
Shireen Abu Akleh
Abu Akleh, a veteran of the journalist from Tel Aviv Tribune, was fatally killed by Israeli forces during a raid in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on May 11, 2022.
Due to his status as one of the most famous journalists in the Middle East, his murder triggered the international indignation of rights and defenders of press freedom and defenders.
Despite global attention, Israeli forces attacked its funeral to Jerusalem, beating the carriers carrying his coffin with batons.
Israel initially denied having killed Abu Akleh, 51, wrongly affirming that the journalist had been shot by armed Palestinians.
Months later, after several visual surveys showed that Israeli soldiers were aiming for Abu Akleh, Israel admitted that his forces had probably killed the journalist, rejecting the incident as an accident.
The Biden administration faced waves of pleads by legislators and rights for the defense of rights to launch his own investigation into the murder, but he resisted calls, arguing that Israel is capable of investigating himself.
In November 2022, Israeli media reports said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was investigating Abu Akleh’s shooting, but the United States Ministry of Justice never confirmed the investigation.
More than three years after the murder of Akleh, his family and his supporters say that justice in his case has not been signified.
Tawfiq Ajaq
Born in Louisiana, Ajaq was 17 years old when he visited occupied West Bank to see his relatives last year.
On January 19, 2024, he was driving a van with his friends when the Israelis sprayed the ball vehicle and killed him.
Mohammed Salameh, who witnessed and survived the attack, said that the shooting was not caused.
Although it was not clear which individual drew on AJAQ, Israel said that the incident involved “an agent of the police on leave, a soldier and a civilian” and was triggered by “rock launch activities” – an affirmation that Salameh denied.
The US State Department called for an “urgent investigation to determine the circumstances” of the incident.
But more than 19 months after the shooting, Israel has not publicly published any conclusion or accused suspect in the shooting.
“We feel abandoned by our government,” said Ajaq’s uncle Mohammad Abdeljabbar last year.
Mohammad Khdour
Khdour was also 17 years old when he was killed in almost identical circumstances in Ajaq a few weeks later.
According to his cousin Malek Mansour, who witnessed the attack, an unidentified aggressor opened fire on their car in the busy West Bank with an Israeli license plate.
Mansour said the attack was not caused. Khdour died on February 10, 2024.
The two had eaten cookies and took selfies for a few moments before filming.
Again, Washington called for a probe.
“There must be an investigation. We must obtain the facts. And if necessary, there must be responsibility,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at the time.
But the defenders say that, although normally Israel is launching dummy investigations into such incidents, the Israeli authorities have not recognized the murder of Khdour at all.
The Israeli army and police told Haaretz publication last year that she did not know the case.
Jacob Flickinger
An Israeli air strike has targeted a World Central Kitchen (WCK) vehicle in Gaza on April 1, 2024, killing seven humanitarian workers, triggering anger and conviction around the world.
Among the victims were Flickinger, a 33-year-old Double Citizen-Canadian.
Biden called for an “rapid” Israeli investigation into the attack, which, according to him, “must bring responsibility”.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called The Blast a “tragic accident”.
The Israeli army said that the commander who had ordered the strike had “supposedly supposed” that armed men in the region were in the aid vehicle.
He added that the commander did not identify the car as associated with World Central Kitchen, a well -known initiative of rescue hunger founded by the famous chef Jose Andres.
A World Central Kitchen logo was displayed in good place on the top of the vehicle before the attack.
Israel said it had rejected two commanders on the incident, but there was no criminal accusation.
Since then, Israel has killed hundreds of humanitarian workers in Gaza, including members of the Palestinian staff of World Central Kitchen.
Last year, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Netanyahu and its former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant for having used famine as a weapon of war in Gaza as well as other alleged war crimes.
AYSENUR EZGI EYGI
Eygi, born in the state of Washington, participated in a demonstration against an illegal outpost of settlers in the West Bank on September 6, 2024, when an Israeli soldier shot him on his head.
She was 26 years old.
Although there were fighting reports during a repression against the demonstration by Israeli forces, several witnesses said that Eygi had been killed during a calm period after the end of chaos.
The State Department called Israel to investigate “quickly and to robust” in the murder of Eygi, but it excluded to conduct its own investigation.
Biden rejected his death as an “accident”, but Blinken condemned him as “unlike and unjustified”.
The same day that Eygi was fatally killed by Israel, the United States Ministry of Justice filed charges against Hamas leaders after the murder of the American captive Hersh Goldberg-Polin in Gaza.
The Israeli army said its soldiers probably killed Eygi “indirectly and involuntarily” – a conclusion that his family called the offensive, stressing that she was targeted by a sniper.
“The contempt shown for human life in the investigation is appalling,” the family said in a statement.
Trump Ally Randy Fine, now a member of the Congress, celebrated the murder of Eygi. “A minus #muslimterrorist,” he wrote in an article on social networks, referring to the shooting.
Kamel Jawad
When Jawad, a famous leader of the American Lebanese community in Michigan, was killed by an Israeli air strike south of Lebanon on October 1 of last year, the Biden administration initially denied that he was an American citizen.
Washington later recognized that Jawad was American, expressing “the alarm” on his murder.
“As we have noted several times, it is a moral and strategic imperative that Israel takes on all the precautions feasible to mitigate civil damage. Any loss of civil life is a tragedy,” said the US State Department at the time.
Israel did not publicly comment on the strike that killed Jawad.
The US Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) has criticized the Biden Administration of the case, including the US government’s initial response.
“It is as if they intentionally tried to see our people killed, to minimize us intentionally and to dehumanize us,” the executive director of ADC Ayoub said last year in Tel Aviv Tribune.
Bitter rabee
On April 6, Israeli forces in the West Bank killed Rabee, 14, from New Jersey, fatally, called him a “terrorist”. Two of his friends were also injured in the attack.
While the Israeli army accused Rabee and his friends of throwing stones on Israeli vehicles, the family of the killed adolescent insisted that he was picking almonds on the side of the road.
The Trump administration did not continue responsibility in the case or even the public press for more details on the incident.
Instead, the State Department cited the Israeli account on the 14 -year -old murder.
“We offer our sincere condolences to the family on their loss,” said the State Department at that time. “We recognize the initial declaration (of the Israeli army) which expressed that this incident occurred during an operation to combat terrorism.”
