Senate Democrats demand US investigation into settlers' killing of Saif Maslouh

Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) has gathered the names of nearly 30 Democratic senators to urge the Trump administration to investigate the killing of Palestinian-American Saifallah Muslat by Israeli settlers in Mazra'a al-Sharqiya, in the occupied West Bank, on July 11.

In a letter addressed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday (July 24-25), the senators criticized what they described as a “culture of impunity when it comes to incidents of civilian deaths in the West Bank, including Americans.”

Saif Allah Kamel Muslat, 20, of Tampa, Florida, was killed on July 11 while visiting his family in the occupied West Bank. Palestinian health authorities and Muslat's family held Israeli settlers responsible for his death.

Shortly after Muslet's killing, the Israeli military announced it was examining reports of a death during a clash between Israelis and Palestinians in the area. An Israeli military spokesperson said Thursday that the Israeli police and the IDF Military Police Criminal Investigation Division subsequently launched a joint investigation into the incident. A Palestinian Authority spokesperson said (according to the Washington Post) that the PA had not complied with Israeli requests to conduct autopsies and review existing autopsy reports.

The senators' letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, was signed by 29 lawmakers, more than half of the chamber's Democrats. No Republicans joined the effort.

Since 2022, Israeli occupation authorities have killed seven Palestinian-Americans in the West Bank, including prominent journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, activist Aisha Noor Izgi Egi, and a 14-year-old boy.

The letter states that the US government "failed in its responsibility to protect American citizens abroad and demand justice for their deaths."

Senator Chris Van Hollen, the lead author of the letter, has called for similar investigations in the past. Van Hollen has emerged as an outspoken critic of settler violence and the Israeli government's response. His office shared responses to similar requests submitted to the administration of former President Joe Biden, showing that officials provided little additional information about the deaths but committed to speaking with the Israeli government about them.

It's worth noting that in a Senate hearing this month to evaluate President Donald Trump's nomination of former White House National Security Advisor Michael Waltz to serve as ambassador to the United Nations, Van Hollen criticized the Trump administration's decision to lift sanctions imposed by the Biden administration on Israeli settlers in the West Bank, whom the US government then considered extremists.

"When you withdrew that executive order, you sent a very bad signal," Van Hollen said at the time.

“We also request that you provide us with an update on the status of any investigations into the deaths of the other six Americans killed since January 2022,” the senators wrote in the letter, “and provide us with a brief account of the actions you are taking to ensure accountability for their deaths and prevent future killings of Americans in the West Bank.”

Palestinian officials in the West Bank and Muslat's family reported that Israeli settlers surrounded the young man after severely beating him on July 11, while he was visiting relatives for a summer vacation. The settlers reportedly prevented ambulances and paramedics from reaching Muslat, and he died before his brother could finally take him to the hospital.

Following news of Muslat's death, the Trump administration stated that the US State Department "has no higher priority than the safety and security of American citizens abroad," but did not elaborate on how it would handle the matter. Following a wave of condemnation, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to "rigorously investigate" Muslat's death, describing his killing as a "criminal and terrorist act."

Florida Senators Rick Scott and Ashley Moody, U.S. Representative Laurel Lee, who represents the same congressional district as Musallam (R-FL), and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, also a Republican, are not silent about the killing of a Florida resident.

An analysis conducted last April by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank considered a front for the Israel lobby in the US capital, found that Israeli settler violence had escalated over the past year, rising by 30 percent in the first half of the year compared to the same period the previous year. "At the same time, Palestinian terrorism in the same region declined sharply," according to the analysis.

“The increase in settler violence at a time when Palestinian terrorism is declining lends credence to the assessment that settler attacks are not simply a response to terrorism, as some have claimed,” wrote study author Naomi Newman.