For two and a half hours, Sayfollah was left to die with no medical assistance, struggling to breathe, blood filling his lungs and his body broken after being brutally beaten by Israeli settlers in the occupiedWest Bank.
The 20-year-old, a dual US citizen who runs an ice cream shop in Florida, was only meant to be visiting family and friends in the village of Al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya, north of Ramallah, for the summer.
On 11 July, his family say a gang of armed settlers attacked him and his relatives as they stood on their own land.
Despite the fact that Sayf – as he is known – was in a critical condition, the Palestinian ambulance called to rescue him was blocked by Israeli security forces, according to his younger brother Mohammed, who was trying to help.
In a panic as Sayf’s face began to turn blue, Mohammed called their father, Kamel Musallet, who was over 10,000 kilometres away in Tampa and powerless to do anything.
Saif died exactly four minutes before the ambulance reached him and before he was finally – and futilely – placed on a stretcher.
“They tried CPR, they tried everything, but it was just too late,” Kamel tells The Independent, his voice cracking as he opens up for the first time about that moment his son was beaten to death.
“According to medical reports, Sayf was hit on his back, on the shoulders, he had head injuries – possibly made by rods. He lost all ability to breathe properly, and his heart stopped for lack of oxygen.”
Mohammed, a softly spoken teenager standing near the spot where the attack happened, says he is still haunted by that moment, kneeling helplessly by his older brother’s side.
“He had blood in his mouth, he was throwing up, he had bruises all over his back, legs, everywhere. He couldn’t talk. He couldn’t reply. Then he went blue,” he adds, before trailing off.
“I started to call my dad, everyone I knew, just to do something. No one could reach us, not even the ambulance. I couldn’t do anything by myself. I was praying for someone to come help.”
Sayfollah is among nearly 1,000 people – four of them US citizens – that Israeli forces or settlers have killed in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023.
In fact, the death toll is so high that multiple international and Israeli rights groups say it is the bloodiest period the area has witnessed since Israel first occupied the land in 1967, over 60 years ago.
The fear is that despite a fragile ceasefire holding in Gaza, it will not be applicable here. Donald Trump’s 20-point “peace plan” does not even mention the West Bank.
