Category World News

Israeli settlers have beaten to death a United States citizen in the occupied West Bank, the victim’s family members and rights groups have said.

Settlers attacked and killed Sayfollah Musallet – who was in his early 20s – in the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, on Friday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Musallet, also known as Saif al-Din Musalat, had travelled from his home in Florida to visit family in Palestine, his cousin Fatmah Muhammad said in a social media post.

Another Palestinian, identified by the Health Ministry as Mohammed Shalabi, was fatally shot by settlers during the attack.

Rights advocates have documented repeated instances where Israeli settlers in the West Bank ransack Palestinian neighbourhoods and towns, burning homes and vehicles in attacks sometimes described as pogroms.

The Israeli military often protects the settlers during their rampages and has shot Palestinians who show any resistance.

The United Nations and other prominent human rights organisations consider the Israeli settlements in the West Bank violations of international law, as part of a broader strategy to displace Palestinians.

While some Western countries like France and Australia have imposed sanctions on violent settlers, attacks have increased since the outbreak of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023.

When Donald Trump took office earlier this year, his administration revoked sanctions on settlers imposed by his predecessor, Joe Biden.

Israeli forces have killed at least nine US citizens since 2022, including veteran Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh.

But none of the incidents have resulted in criminal charges.

The US provides billions of dollars to Israel every year. Advocates have accused successive US administrations of failing to protect American citizens from Israeli violence in the Middle East.

On Friday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called on Washington to ensure accountability for the killing of Musallet.

“Every other murder of an American citizen has gone unpunished by the American government, which is why the Israeli government keeps wantonly killing American Palestinians and, of course, other Palestinians,” CAIR deputy director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said in a statement.

He then pointed out that Trump has repeatedly promised to prioritise American interests, as typified by his campaign slogan “America First”.

“If President Trump will not even put America first when Israel murders American citizens, then this is truly an Israel First administration,” Mitchell said.

The Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) also called for action from the US administration, noting that settlers are “lynching Palestinians more frequently – with full support from Israel’s army and government”.

“The US government has a legal and moral obligation to stop Israel’s racist violence against Palestinians. Instead, it’s still backing and funding it,” the group said in a statement.

The US Department of State did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment about the killing of Musallet.

The Palestinian group Hamas condemned the murder of Musallet, describing it as “barbaric”, and called on Palestinians across the West Bank to rise up to “confront the settlers and their terrorist attacks”.

Israel said it was “investigating” what happened in Sinjil, claiming that the violence started when Palestinians threw rocks at an Israeli vehicle.

“Shortly thereafter, violent clashes developed in the area between Palestinians and Israeli civilians, which included the destruction of Palestinian property, arson, physical confrontations, and stone-throwing,” the Israeli military said in a statement.

Israeli investigations often lead to no charges or meaningful accountability for the abuses of Israeli officers and settlers.

United States President Donald Trump’s newly announced tariffs of 50 percent on Brazilian imports could drive up beef prices for US consumers.

Unless the White House delays or reverses course, the tariffs are set to take effect on August 1.

After China, the US is the second-largest importer of Brazilian beef. Brazil is currently the fifth-largest source of foreign beef for the US, and its share has grown in the past year, accounting for 21 percent of all US beef imports.

That surge has been driven by domestic supply challenges, including widespread droughts and rising grain costs. In fact, imports doubled in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2024 including because of the threat of upcoming tariffs.

Analysts say should the tariff go into place, it will hit importers of ground beef, commonly used in hamburgers, particularly hard.

“They [US beef importers] will either have to pay the higher cost of Brazilian beef or obtain it from other higher-cost sources. That could lead to higher prices for certain beef products, particularly ground beef and hamburger meat. This comes at a time when the US cattle herd is at the lowest level in many decades, demand for beef is strong, and as a result beef prices are up,” David Ortega, a food economist and professor at Michigan State University, told Al Jazeera.

The 50 percent tariff would bring the rate on Brazilian beef to about 76 percent for the rest of the year, Reuters news agency reported, citing livestock analysts.

Some domestic trade groups, including the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), have praised the White House for the looming tariffs.

“NCBA strongly supports President Trump holding Brazil accountable with a 50 percent tariff,” NCBA Executive Director of Government Affairs Kent Bacus said in a statement provided to Al Jazeera. “For many years, NCBA has called for full suspension of imported Brazilian beef due to their abysmal lack of accountability on cattle health and food safety. Brazil’s failure to report cases of atypical BSE [a neurological disease affecting cattle] and their history of [foot and mouth disease] is a major concern for America’s cattle producer.

“A 50 percent tariff is a good start, but we need to suspend beef imports from Brazil so we can conduct a thorough audit and verify Brazil’s claims [of safety and health practices].”

In the 2024 election cycle, almost 95 percent of the political action committee representing the NCBA’s donations went to Republican candidates, according to OpenSecrets.

Rising costs

The tariffs come as the US is already facing a decline in domestic beef production and increased reliance on imported beef. There are already other strains on the US beef market because livestock imports from Mexico are at a standstill following new health concerns — the spread of a flesh-eating parasite called a screwworm. At the same time, imports from Brazil were down in June on the back of the 10 percent tariffs the White House imposed in April across all countries while they each negotiated their trade deal with the US.

“Domestic beef producers may benefit in the short term from reduced competition. However, producers are facing high input costs and weather-related challenges that limit their ability to expand quickly,” Ortega added.

Farmers in the US also have the smallest cattle herds in more than 70 years, and production is expected to decrease further by two percent by the end of the year.

Because of pains in domestic supply, imports doubled in the first five months of the year compared to the same period last year. That began to decline last month as a result of the 10 percent blanket tariffs.

Robert Perosa, president of Brazilian Beef Exporters Associations (ABIEC), an industry trade group, told reporters that the new tariffs would make it  “economically unfeasible” to continue to export to the US market.

The move will raise costs for restaurants across the US.

“Dramatic tariff increases could affect menu planning and food costs for restaurants as they attempt to find new suppliers,” Sean Kennedy, executive vice president of public affairs at the National Restaurant Association, said in a statement provided to Al Jazeera. “As we have said from the outset, our industry relies on a steady supply of imported goods that cannot be produced here in the US, and we urge the Trump administration to pursue policies that will secure fair trade agreements.”

Al Jazeera reached out to the largest fast food restaurant chains in the US, including McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Sonic Drive-In and Jack in the Box, but none responded.

JBS and Marfrig, two of Brazil’s largest beef producers, also did not reply to a request for comment.

Markets respond

Stock markets have been relatively muted in their response to Trump’s tariff announcements this week. At the market close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 0.6 percent, and the S&P 500 is down 0.33 percent for the day. The Nasdaq Composite Index is down 0.2 percent.

Israel is engineering a “cruel and Machiavellian scheme to kill” in Gaza, the head of the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees says, as the world body reports that since May, some 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid.

“Under our watch, Gaza has become the graveyard of children [and] starving people,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said in a post on X on Friday.

People in Gaza have “no way out”, he said. “Their choice is between 2 deaths: starvation or being [shot] at.”

Lazzarini was reacting to the Israeli military’s killing of 15 people, including nine children and four women, as they waited in line for nutritional supplements in the city of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza on Thursday.

Inaction & silence are complicities.
Under our watch, #Gaza has become the graveyard of children & starving people.

No way out. Their choice is between 2 deaths: starvation or being shoot at.

The most cruel & machiavellian scheme to kill, in total impunity.

Our norms & values… https://t.co/oWQYXSn1fb

His comments came on another bloody day in the Strip, with medical sources reporting that 45 people had been killed – 11 of them near a GHF-run aid centre in Rafah.

The controversial US- and Israel-backed GHF has effectively sidelined Gaza’s vast UN-led aid delivery network since it started operations in May, after Israel eased a more than two-month total blockade on the Strip.

Since then, 819 Palestinians have been killed while waiting for food, the spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday. He said 634 were killed in the vicinity of GHF sites – which number four for the entire enclave – and 185 were killed close to other humanitarian aid convoys, including some run by the UN.

Earlier in the day, Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN human rights office, said between May and July 7, the UN had recorded 798 killings near aid points in Gaza.

Israeli soldiers and US contractors working with GHF have admitted to shooting unarmed Palestinians gathering for food, according to separate recent reports by Israeli outlet Haaretz and The Associated Press news agency.

Reporting from the UN in New York, Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo said that Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), had given a briefing in which he reported the situation in Gaza was “the worst that he has ever seen it”.

Skau, who had just returned from his fourth trip to Gaza, had said the WFP had enough food to feed the entire population of Gaza for two months, but the trucks were not being let in.

Instead, Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to rely on the GHF.

‘A second Nakba’

The extent of the killing at the GHF sites emerged as Israel advanced its plans for what it calls a “humanitarian city” – likened by analysts to a concentration camp – to be built on the ruins of the southern city of Rafah.

Satellite images analysed by Al Jazeera show large tracts of land in Rafah being cleared of buildings, seemingly in preparation for the forced transfer of Palestinians.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz had told journalists this week that the zone would eventually house Gaza’s entire population of 2.1 million.

British Israeli analyst Daniel Levy, president of the US/Middle East Project, noted that the three GHF aid hubs located in the south were an integral part of a plan to bait Palestinians into moving towards Rafah.

“The positioning of these GHF distribution sites is a premeditated part of a plan of social-demographic engineering to move Palestinians – to relocate, displace and kettle them – into this area in the south,” he told Al Jazeera.

Rafah, he said, was being used as a “staging post” to “ethnically cleanse” Palestinians from the rest of Gaza. “We are witnessing, it seems, a second Nakba,” he said.

The GHF, for its part, boasted on Friday that it was “reinventing” aid delivery. “Our secure and innovative channels mean aid is placed directly into the hands of those who desperately need it,” the group said on X.

‘On the brink of death every day’

As of Friday night, 45 people – including the 11 slain at the GHF site in Rafah – had been killed in the enclave since dawn, according to medical sources who spoke to Al Jazeera.

Among those killed, at least eight people died after Israel bombed the Halimah al-Saadiyah School in Jabalia an-Nazla, which was sheltering the displaced. The military struck at night as people slept.

Witness Ahmed Khalla told Al Jazeera he found dead people lying on the floor of a classroom, coming upon scenes he described as “beyond horrific”, including “a little girl without a head – literally, without a head”.

At least one Palestinian was killed and others were wounded following an Israeli attack that targeted a house on Jaffa Street in the Tuffah area, east of Gaza City. Sources at al-Ahli Arab Hospital told Al Jazeera that the victim was a child.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said in a statement that patients in the enclave’s hospitals “continue to be placed on the brink of death every day” due to a lack of fuel.

It said that as hospitals are forced to ration fuel, this leads to cutting off electricity in some departments and halting some services, including kidney dialysis treatments.

“It also reduces the ability to operate a sufficient number of ambulances, forcing citizens to transport the injured and sick in animal-drawn carts,” said the statement.

Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid access into Gaza are placing countless lives at risk, Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the UN’s Guterres, said.