More than two dozen Democratic senators are demanding the Trump administration open an official investigation into Americans who’ve been killed in the West Bank, where Israeli settlers — whose unauthorized settlements have been approved by extremist officials in Israel’s government — have at times used violence to expand their annexation efforts.
The Biden administration faced criticism last year for its tepid response and seemingly impotent inquiries into Americans killed in the West Bank. But Israeli settlers and their allies in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government were optimistic that Donald Trump’s election win would usher in an administration even more open to their ambitions than Biden’s. And indeed, Trump lifted the Biden administration’s sanctions on Israeli settlers one day after he was inaugurated, shortly after which, NBC News reported, “‘Israeli civilians,’ some of them masked, raided the Palestinian village of Al-Funduq,” quoting the Israeli military, and Israel launched a joint operation into the West Bank city of Jenin.
On Thursday, 29 Democratic senators co-signed a letter referencing the spike of violence and the Americans who’ve fallen victim to it — most recently, a Palestinian-American man named Saifulla Musallet, who was allegedly ambushed and beaten to death on family land by Israeli settlers.
The senators wrote:
Following the Trump Administration’s sudden revocation of all U.S. sanctions against extremist settlers in the West Bank, the first five months of 2025 have seen the highest rate of settler attacks in years and the killing of another American. We urge you to pursue a different approach. Saifullah Kamal Musallet is the seventh American citizen killed in the West Bank since January 2022 — and the fifth in just the last nineteen months. The killings of these Americans in the West Bank have been met by a lack of accountability from the Netanyahu government and an inability to secure justice by the U.S. government. These failures have contributed to an unacceptable culture of impunity when it comes to incidents where civilians have been killed in the West Bank, including Americans.
The senators urged Trump to launch an investigation “immediately” into Musallet’s killing and allegations that Israeli forces prevented ambulances from reaching him. They asked to be updated within the next two weeks on the status of any other investigations into Americans killed in the West Bank, along with information on what steps are being taken to protect Americans in the region.
The tide of public sentiment in the U.S. has begun to turn against Israel’s government in recent months, as Israel’s assault on Gaza in response to the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks and its blockade on resources into the country have produced horrific scenes of violence and famine. Although Trump has shown little to no interest in deterring Israel’s violence, a recent CNN poll found just 23% of Americans think Israeli military actions in Gaza are fully justified.
