DeLauro Issues Statement on Killing of Sayfollah Musallet

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) issued the following statement regarding the killing of Sayfollah Musallet, a Palestinian-American citizen with ties to Connecticut:

"I am disturbed and outraged by the brutal killing of Sayfollah Musallet, a 20-year-old Palestinian American citizen, by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, where he had travelled to visit family. There, he was beaten and strangled by settlers, who blocked medical personnel from reaching him for hours. He died en route to the hospital.

Sayfollah had family in Florida and Connecticut, and I join them in grieving this senseless killing.

Deadly attacks like this have become horrifically commonplace as Israeli settlers have pushed further and further into Palestinian communities, engaging in vigilante violence with tacit and sometimes explicit support from Prime Minister Netanyahu's government. That is why I led a bicameral effort urging the Biden Administration to sanction Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, two hard-right Israeli ministers who openly support settler violence, as well as settler organizations that support illegal construction and land seizures in the West Bank. President Trump has since lifted sanctions on these organizations and withdrawn the executive order authorizing them - a boon for extremist supporters of the settlement movement.

I condemn the killing of Sayfollah Musallet in the strongest terms, and demand that the U.S. Department of State and the Federal Bureau of Investigation launch a formal inquiry into this targeted killing of an American citizen. I will continue to advocate for a ceasefire that allows unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid, the release of all remaining hostages held by Hamas, and formal negotiations to end this war."