Furope’s privacy groups take on Big Tech with class action cases

Coupled with the EU’s GDPR, a new collective redress tool could see tech firms face a new wave of massive cases.

Collective redress actions have raised concerns for businesses about the multiplier effect of what happens if “it's a million people claiming €400." | iStock

July 14, 2025 4:23 am CET
By Ellen O'Regan

POLITICO EU

BRUSSELS — Europe's powerful privacy activists are wielding a sharp new legal tool that, if successful, could see the cost of privacy breaches balloon into the billions for Big Tech.

European consumers in recent years have seen a law take effect that allows them to club together to look for compensation for damages caused by companies. Armed with Europe's blockbuster privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation, internet users — often represented by savvy digital rights groups — are now gunning for big payouts.

The European Union has had a Collective Redress Directive in force since 2020, designed in the wake of the Volkswagen emissions scandal to better protect large groups of consumers from suffering the same harm, and to collectively look for compensation. One of the laws the directive can help enforce is the GDPR.


Already, Dutch non-profit SOMI has launched collective redress actions against TikTok and Meta; the Irish Council for Civil Liberties has lodged one against Microsoft; and Austrian privacy group Noyb is preparing to launch its first action against credit ratings agency CRIF.

Privacy groups see “a lot of potential” in collective redress as a new avenue, especially for GDPR breaches by Big Tech, said Ursula Pachl, who last year took on the role of spearheading collective redress actions at Noyb — one of Europe's most prolific privacy watchdogs — after more than a decade working at powerful Brussels consumer lobby association BEUC.

“Enforcement has always been the Achilles heel of the European Union, particularly in regards to consumer protection,” Pachl said.

The GDPR in particular lends itself well to collective action because “everybody in Europe probably suffers from the same illegal behavior if there is a Big Tech company who does something which doesn't respect the GDPR," she said.

Guillaume Couneson, a data protection lawyer with the firm Linklaters, said that when a breach is confirmed by a data protection authority, collective redress actions could “immediately [pop] up like mushrooms.”
Multiplying fines

A recent landmark court case highlighted just how much collective redress actions could sting tech firms and others alike.


A judge at the EU's General Court ruled in January that a complainant, Thomas Bindl, was entitled to damages when he was faced with "some uncertainty" about what happened to his data. Bindl's case rested on his having clicked a "Sign in with Facebook" hyperlink displayed on a European Commission webpage.

The judge ruled Bindl was owed €400 in damages — a judgement that was quickly seen as setting the bar for compensation for a single breach of the GDPR .

Couneson said the case “surprised many by the height of the damages” and had raised immediate concerns for businesses about the multiplier effect of what happens if “it’s a million people claiming €400."

Thomas Bindl's case rested on his having clicked a "Sign in with Facebook" hyperlink displayed on a European Commission webpage. | Olivier Hoslet/EPA

That's a daunting prospect for Big Tech firms, especially if such class action cases take off in Europe, where the tech sector has faced much heavier regulatory scrutiny and court losses than in the United States.

Class actions are predominantly a phenomenon of the U.S. legal system, where they are seen as a way to relieve courts of many similar cases and for consumers to get compensation in a more cost-effective way.

But the U.S. system has also led to court cases driven by opportunistic litigation, with lawyers actively rallying plaintiffs to bring forward a case in order to take a cut of the winnings.


Countries like the Netherlands and Belgium have long traditions of collective action for consumers, while in other EU countries legal routes have been limited or don't exist. But before the directive, legal avenues to take consumer group actions were “quite patchy” across the EU, said Florence Danis, also a lawyer at Linklaters.

The first article of the EU directive on collective redress says it will put in place “appropriate safeguards to avoid abusive litigation." The power to take up cases is granted only to not-for-profit, independent, consumer-focused organizations, while EU countries are required to create a legal route for these “qualified entities.”

According to Karen Shin, a California-based privacy lawyer at law firm Blank Rome, non-profits might be less inclined to take genuine cases due to the costs they could trigger. In many EU countries as well as in the United Kingdom, the losing side of a court case pays for attorney’s fees and costs, which "may limit the usage of class actions in the EU,” she said.

New privacy battlegrounds

Enforcement of the GDPR was designed to be the domain of national data protection authorities across the EU. Because the principle of a "one-stop shop" regulator was built into the law, most of the landmark privacy cases have fallen into the hands of Ireland's chief regulator, the Irish Data Protection Commission.

Charged with regulating the many Big Tech companies headquartered in the country, the Irish regulator has handed down most of the biggest fines in the history of the GDPR, including the €1.2 billion against Meta over data transfers to the U.S. and the €530 million against TikTok relating to Chinese data transfers.

But those fines took years to decide. For years, civil society and other data protection regulators were left frustrated over perceived inaction by the Irish DPC. Noyb has repeatedly criticized the Irish regulator over what it describes as tardy or lenient enforcement against Big Tech.

A 2023 report from the Irish Council of Civil Liberties estimated that 67 percent of the Irish DPC's EU-level investigations had been overruled by a majority of its European counterparts demanding tougher enforcement action.

Ireland has also thrown up barriers to the use of collective action, through both centuries-old laws and its implementation of the new directive.

The country's legal system prohibits third-party funding of collective actions, harking back to old laws from as early as the 14th century that were reaffirmed by the Irish Supreme Court in 2017. Ireland has also limited contributions from consumers to collective cases at €25 per person.

This is something that Noyb, a familiar presence in Irish courts, has raised as a concern with the European Commission, arguing it infringes on the EU directive. EU countries "[have] a positive obligation to make sure that financially it's not an obstacle” to start collective action cases, Pachl said.

Ireland will still be an “obvious forum” for GDPR collective redress actions, given that many Big Tech defendants are based there, said Linklaters' Danis.

But, she added, consumers are not geographically bound by the directive: “Even if you're an Irish plaintiff or representative, you could go before the French court to claim damages to the benefit of French consumers, for instance.”

Trump’s war on multinationals tests Ireland’s economic miracle

Whether it’s tariffs that impact its exports or a retaliatory EU digital services tax, Ireland stands to lose more acutely than most.

To guard against potential vulnerabilities, Irish officials have scrambled since Donald Trump came to power to build relationships with U.S. state governors and congressional figures, hoping to soften Washington’s stance. | 

Pool photo by Ludovic Marin/EFE via EPA

July 14, 2025 
By Giovanna Faggionato and Carlo Martuscelli
POLITICO EU

Donald Trump’s trade war is forcing Ireland to confront the fragile foundation of its economic miracle.

One economist saw it coming. In the summer of 2024, just after taking up an economic advisory role to Ireland’s government, Stephen Kinsella, professor of economics at the University of Limerick, warned that the next crisis wouldn’t be homegrown — it would come from Washington.

“The most obvious source,” he said, “would be the election of Donald Trump.”

If Trump moved to block U.S. multinational investment in Ireland, the shock, he said, would make Ireland’s earlier period of austerity “look like an episode of the Care Bears.”

Within months, Kinsella’s prediction began to materialize. Trump returned to the White House. He publicly called Ireland a “tax scam” and launched a trade assault that threatened the Irish exports of American pharmaceutical giants like Pfizer. Meanwhile, the EU — eyeing retaliation — has considered targeting big tech firms also based on the island, such as Apple, and reviewing services imported from the U.S.

From every angle, Ireland’s unusually buoyant economy suddenly looked exposed.

This has much to do with Ireland’s recent economic success being linked to the fortunes of U.S. multinationals. Such corporations, many of them with market valuations exceeding Ireland’s own GDP, employed an estimated 620,000 people across a workforce of 2.9 million in 2024, according to Ireland’s National Statistics Office.

Even more stark: Just 10 international corporations account for over half of all corporate tax receipts — and they make up more than a third of total Irish government revenue.

“It’s the highest reliance on corporate income among developed countries,” said Aidan Regan, political economy professor at Dublin’s University College and a vocal critic of the Irish model.

The risk is not just economic slowdown, but a systemic shock. As Kinsella told a business podcast: “We are an economy that is very strangely structured, a beautiful freak.” And: “To lose the top three biggest, most concentrated players [would] basically wipe us out.”

Kinsella declined to be interviewed for this story because of his government advisory role. But his analysis is shared by many including the country’s Fiscal Council, a statutory body set up to monitor Irish fiscal policy

Disappearing windfall

In April, the Fiscal Council warned the government not to use corporate windfalls to fund permanent spending, because of the risk they could “easily disappear.”

The source of these Irish corporate revenues is no mystery. What appear to be pharmaceutical exports or imports of digital services are in substance the effects of massive U.S. firms shifting their profits to Ireland, via intangible assets like intellectual property.

Dublin is also lobbying hard within the EU to shield U.S. firms. 

| Mairo Cinquetti/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The data tells the story. Corporate tax receipts began surging in 2015, following OECD-led reforms that curbed some abuses elsewhere but left key loopholes intact.

As a result, many companies chose to anchor their royalty-generating assets in Ireland, where the tax on such income is a minuscule 6.25 percent. According to EU Tax Observatory research, Ireland is still leads the global rankings for corporate profit shifting.

“Ireland is both in a very privileged position and a very precarious position,” Regina Doherty, a former Irish government minister who is now a member of European Parliament with the center-right European People’s Party, told POLITICO last month.

Her party, Fine Gael, has been part of coalitions that governed Ireland through a series of shocks, including the post-2008 financial crisis, Brexit, and the pandemic — but the Trump shock may be the most serious of them all.


“Certainly [this] is the most challenging time that I can remember in my political and adult career,” Doherty said.

To guard against potential vulnerabilities, Irish officials have scrambled since Trump came to power to build relationships with U.S. state governors and congressional figures, hoping to soften Washington’s stance.

When Taoiseach Micheál Martin met Trump in the Oval Office in March, he leaned on talking points from the Irish American Chamber of Commerce, describing the U.S.–Ireland relationship as a “two-way street.” Ireland is now the sixth-largest investor into the United States — a fact increasingly invoked as evidence of a balanced partnership.

But Dublin is also lobbying hard within the EU to shield U.S. firms.

Doherty warned that introducing a bloc-wide digital tax would be “incredibly damaging for the Irish economy” and said Ireland would “continue to advance that view with EU partners.”

The EU is negotiating to avoid tariffs, including on sectors such as pharmaceuticals which Ireland’s corporate revenues depend on. But it is also considering a tax on digital firms to get more revenues for its own budget.

Fortress Ireland

Even as it defends U.S. multinationals abroad, Ireland is scrambling to fortify its economy at home.

Speaking at the Global Ireland event last month, Frances Ruane, chair of the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council, said that dealings on the U.S. front require patience — but at home, they “need to move more quickly.”

Ireland, she said, must invest in infrastructure and scale its indigenous economy, particularly energy grids and data centres, if it’s to ensure its economic miracle does not go to waste.

Ruane also called for expanding R&D tax credits for domestic firms and for tapping into new common strategic EU funding programs.

“What really matters is that the small countries make sure their voice is heard so that this does not become a concentration,” she said, referring to the risk of larger countries capturing the lion’s share of EU support.

At the same event, Martin echoed this push, unveiling new bilateral strategies for deepening ties with Germany and France. Still, he stressed that “even if others step back, Ireland will continue to engage” with the U.S. “at all levels.”

Whether that strategy is enough to shield Ireland from a global reordering of corporate geography remains to be seen.

Back in Dublin, however, the domestic political class has been absorbed by other matters — like a parliamentary feud over whether pro-government independents can ask questions during sessions with the Taoiseach.

Meanwhile, the underlying model of Ireland’s prosperity is beginning to wobble.

On the surface, the island’s economy continues to perform at an incredible growth rate. In the first three months of the year, it notched up a massive 9.1 percent rise in GDP, according to the country’s statistics agency.

But the figures may be misleading. Economists and even Irish Finance Minister and Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe say the effect was largely due to large multinationals rushing through exports to front-run Donald Trump’s April 2 U.S. tariff announcement.

When the distorting effects of multinationals are stripped out of official data, the quarterly growth rate comes in at a decidedly more modest 0.8 percent, according to official figures.

“It frustrates me to see what our political system is doing while Trump is unleashing an existential threat to the future prosperity of the Irish economy,” said Jim Power, an independent economist. “I’m hoping that the gravity of the threat to the Irish economy will drive policy in a better direction.”

ILO

UN-backed labour standards at risk as tariff uncertainty grows

13 July 2025


© Better Work/Marcel Crozet
Employees work at a garment factory in Haiti

Garment factories around the world which have signed up to implement UN-backed labour standards may simply stop investing in improving working conditions, due to widespread uncertainty over tariff levels, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Threatened or actual tariff increases are largely focused on taxing imports into the United States and will make the products made by factories outside the country more expensive – a situation which may drive down demand.

The ILO’s Better Work programme, a partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), has supported garment factories, many of which export their products to the United States.

The ILO’s Sara Park explained to UN News what could happen next.

Sara Park: Better Work currently operates in the garment, textile and footwear sector in 13 countries around the world.

It was set up 24 years ago in Cambodia to monitor the working conditions in garment factories and since then has focused on improvement and capacity building of factories and our constituencies in the sector, for example occupational safety and health.

There are other elements that support the sector to promote social dialogue, safe and decent work which includes fair wages and working hours. The programme has also helped build productivity in those sectors.

UN News: How is the ILO involved?

Sara Park: The ILO is a tripartite organization, so we work with governments, employers, the unions who represent workers, usually Ministries of Labour, but also with ministries of trade or commerce because the programme focuses on exports.

© Better Work/Aron Simeneh
A worker at a factory in Ethiopia carries out an inspection on fire safety equipment.

But what maybe makes us different from other projects is that we have a very close collaboration with major brands from the US, UK, Europe and Japan to promote responsible business practices.

UN News: How successful has this programme been?

Sara Park: Our studies show that at the factory level we've made significant impact, for example by increasing wages and supporting gender-equality related issues, women's empowerment and women getting more supervisory roles.

Over the quarter of a century of its existence, Better Work has lifted millions of people out of poverty and reduced the environmental impact of the apparel sector by creating decent work in sustainable enterprises.

It's still hard for unions as freedom of association remains a big challenge.

© ILO/Aaron Santos
A woman works at a Better Work-affiliated factory in Viet Nam.

If you're trying to develop a whole industry and make it competitive, it takes years if not decades; however, we have seen improvements in the factories where we work.

Better Work-enrolled factories have also reported an increase in orders from buyers.

UN News: So, this is good for business as well?

Sara Park: This is good for business, and productivity in individual factories. Governments also tell us that the programme supports confidence and thus growth of the industry as a whole in participating countries.

© Better Work/Marcel Crozet
Garment employees work on a production line of an exporting clothing plant in Jordan.

UN News: How has Better Work been affected by recent global changes in development funding?

Sara Park: As we know from recent developments, the US Government has cut funding and that has affected our programmes in Haiti and Jordan, which were almost fully funded by the US. The other countries have not been affected, as we are lucky to have very diverse funding.

UN News: Why is the ILO’s ongoing support needed once the relationship between factory and the buyer is set up?

Sara Park: The buyers, which are often well-known companies, require a sustainable way of monitoring working conditions to ensure they are in compliance with international labour standards; this is important to eliminate risk from the buyers’ perspective.

The Better Work programme supports improvements in factories, by conducting assessments, advisory and learning sessions and helps all parties to better understand compliance with the standards. It also works with governments, workers and employers to build capacity.

© Better Work/Feri Latief
Workers take their lunch break at a garment factory in Indonesia.

UN News: Currently there is widespread uncertainty about tariffs, the taxing of imported goods particularly into the United States. How is the garment sector impacted?

Sara Park: At the moment, we don’t know what the impact will be. Governments are monitoring the situation. Employers and, of course, the unions are worried.

It is extremely challenging for factories as uncertainty means they cannot plan even for the short term, as they don’t know what orders they will have. They are also concerned about paying workers.

Better Work-enrolled factories are providing primarily jobs in the formal sector; if they close, then those jobs may move to the informal sector where workers have fewer protections.

In countries like Jordan for example, migrants make up the majority of the workforce in the garment industry, most of them come from South and Southeast Asia.

UN News: How is this uncertainty impacting investment in the global garment industry?

Sara Park: During periods of crisis or uncertainty, investment generally pauses. One concern is that factories stop investing in improving working conditions, which could affect occupational safety and health.

For example, heat stress is a serious issue. Recently, in Pakistan temperatures reached 50 degrees Celsius so action needs to be taken to protect workers. This may not happen if investment dries up.

UN News: What would you say to a garment worker who was worried about his or her job?

Sara Park: We understand this is a worry for many workers. Yet the work of the ILO is continuing to ensure that workers are protected and the ILO remains in those countries and is committed to improving conditions for all workers across different sectors.

We will continue to promote social dialogue because that's how improvements can be made at factory, sectoral and national level.

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UN-backed labour standards at risk as tariff uncertainty grows

The right kind of jihadist: Israel’s support for anti-Hamas Islamists in Gaza

Yuriy Matsarsky
13 July 2025
THE INSIDER

A pro-Israeli group of “radical Islamists” is operating behind Hamas lines in the Gaza Strip. Its leader, Yasser Abu Shabab, has been branded a traitor by Hamas and other anti-Israeli forces. For a long time, he denied having any connection to Israel, but then unexpectedly admitted that he coordinates his actions with forces from the Jewish state. Before the current war in Gaza, Abu Shabab presented himself and his circle as radical Muslims who opposed Hamas for not being religious enough. Their exaggerated displays of piety even prompted accusations of links to ISIS. Yet this hasn’t stopped the self-proclaimed jihadists from siding not with Iran or Qatar, but with Israel — whose leadership is willing to do almost anything to eliminate Hamas. However, serious doubts remain regarding the sincerity of these pro-Israeli Islamic radicals.

Content

Not holy enough


Hamas in reverse


Fellow traveler, not ally

Not holy enough

“When they think no one is watching or listening, they smoke, curse, and even talk about women,” said a Gaza resident I stayed with during one of my trips to the Middle East, listing what he considered the worst traits of Hamas fighters.

Such behavior — smoking, swearing, and speaking openly about sex — violates the strict Islamic rules Hamas members are supposedly committed to following. The group’s name, after all, is an acronym in Arabic for “Islamic Resistance Movement.”

But since at least the mid-2000s, when Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip, it has been criticized for lacking religious fervor. In fact, its participation in Palestinian parliamentary elections — which in 2006 marked the group’s first step toward seizing power — was condemned by religious hardliners as un-Islamic and contrary to a strict reading of the Quran and Sunnah.

Radicals also opposed Hamas’s reluctance to keep up a state of constant war with Israel. They criticized the group for holding talks with the Israelis, for refusing to immediately impose Sharia law in Gaza, and for what they saw as excessive attention to women’s rights in its founding documents.

Radicals denounced Hamas’s refusal to immediately introduce Sharia law in Gaza

The radicals accurately identified the source of Hamas’s popularity among Gaza’s population — its aggressive anti-Israel rhetoric and frequent appeals to religious values — and simply co-opted those issues, taking the hostility of their slogans and the visibility of their piety to the extreme.

By comparison, Hamas began to appear less anti-Israeli and less committed to defending Muslim interests. In statements by leaders of more radical Salafi groups such as Jaysh al-Ummah, Hamas is still portrayed as a Muslim organization, but as one that has lost its way and strayed from true Islamic principles.

Opposition radical groups and organizations might have had a chance to become serious rivals to Hamas in Gaza, but their ideological leaders failed to find common ground with one another, meaning that the region’s countless scattered cells remained disunited. The problem was not necessarily religious in nature.

Instead, a major obstacle was the simple fact that a significant number of these groups were using radical Islam merely as a cover for criminal enterprises. For example, entire Bedouin clans, who had for generations earned substantial money smuggling weapons and other less-than-legal goods, declared themselves jihadists shortly after Hamas began cracking down on smuggling in Gaza.

Some opposition groups used radical Islam merely as a front for illegal business

This sudden “jihadization” of mafia structures was primarily aimed at legitimizing them in the eyes of the Palestinian public — giving yesterday’s criminals the aura of religious warriors. After all, serving as a soldier of Islam who has been called by Allah to clandestinely deliver weapons through underground tunnels in support of a sacred jihad sounds far more noble than simply acting as a member of a gang of smugglers.



Of course, not all jihadists in Gaza were mafia-style impostors. There were — and still are — plenty of genuine radicals. One need only recall the 2011 murder of Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni, who lived in Gaza and was killed by Salafis outraged by his openly un-Islamic behavior (which included drinking alcohol in public). But there are also plenty of mafia-style structures that only pretend to be religiously motivated.

Hamas in reverse

One such group is the faction led by a young Bedouin, Yasser Abu Shabab, who became internationally known just last month after former Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman publicly named him as the head of a pro-Israeli militia in Gaza — one funded by the Jewish state.

Little is known about Abu Shabab himself. Arab sources describe him as a textbook example of a bandit turned jihadist. Media reports suggest he once led a criminal network involved in smuggling weapons and drugs — and that later rebranded itself as a jihadist group.

This faction operated in the Gaza Strip and in Egypt’s neighboring Sinai Peninsula, including during the period when large swaths of Sinai were under ISIS control. This led to accusations that Abu Shabab was either a member of ISIS or at least closely tied to the radical movement.



Yasser Abu Shabab

According to Muhammad Shehada, a Gaza-born expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, Abu Shabab was serving a prison sentence in Gaza for drug smuggling at the time of the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack. Today, Shehada says, the young Bedouin leads a militia at least 300 strong and carries out delicate tasks for Israel, including reconnaissance behind Hamas lines, organizing refugee camps, and supplying those camps with humanitarian aid stolen from international aid warehouses.

It is possible that Shehada, who holds openly anti-Israeli views, may simply be trying to demonize the Jewish state by accusing it of collaborating with a criminal tied to ISIS. However, earlier this month Abu Shabab himself seemed to partly confirm Shehada’s claims. In an interview with an Israeli Arabic-language radio station (the mere fact that a Gaza militant spoke with Israeli journalists says a lot), Abu Shabab admitted to coordinating his group’s activities with the Israeli military.

At the same time, Abu Shabab denies having any ties to ISIS or receiving weapons and money from Israel. He sees Israel — as he puts it — as a situational ally in the war against Hamas and declares that he is ready to fight to liberate Gaza from Hamas “with the Israelis or without them.”

Abu Shabab admitted to coordinating his group’s actions with the Israeli army


It’s worth noting that Abu Shabab had previously insisted he had no connection to Israel and no contact with representatives of the Jewish state. As recently as early June, he claimed he had never cooperated with the Israelis — though he did add the caveat that, in the future, he might act alongside them.

Israel’s selection of Abu Shabab’s group as its proxy is unlikely to be coincidental. If reports that the young Bedouin commands around 300 fighters are accurate, that would make his faction one of the largest anti-Hamas forces in Gaza.

For comparison, the aforementioned Salafi group Jaysh al-Ummah consists of just a few dozen members — yet even they have remained beyond Hamas’s control, resisting both force and persuasion. Moreover, Abu Shabab’s men operate in the border city of Rafah, at the very southern edge of the Gaza Strip, which now represents the primary theater of the war.

The Revolutionary Court in Gaza, which is under Hamas control, has issued an arrest warrant for Abu Shabab, charging him with treason, collaboration with hostile entities, forming an illegal armed group, and rebellion. The judges gave him until July 12 to surrender to Hamas, and it appears his case will be tried in absentia.

It’s almost unthinkable that Yasser Abu Shabab would be intimidated by the court’s ultimatum and voluntarily place himself in Hamas’s custody. Hamas is clearly no longer in a position to dictate terms. It has failed — and is unlikely to succeed — in turning the tide of the war in the Gaza Strip, much of which is already under Israeli military control.

In recent days, the IDF has intensified its shelling and bombing of Gaza, worsening an already catastrophic humanitarian situation in the region. And Israel has no intention of letting up. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to insist that the fighting will go on until Hamas is completely eliminated.

As for the region’s administrative future after that goal is achieved, Israeli authorities appear not to have made a final decision. Plans to forcibly deport Palestinians to neighboring Arab countries have so far failed to gain any adherents from among Middle Eastern governments, even if the idea has not been entirely abandoned. In any case, the strip is likely to remain predominantly Arab and staunchly anti-Israeli — which is where someone like Abu Shabab might prove useful. In theory, Israel could entrust him or someone from his circle with establishing a new, post-Hamas administration for the Gaza Strip.

Israel could entrust Shabab with creating a post-Hamas administration in Gaza

After all, the Israelis have significant experience in building governments — and even armies — led by their Arab partners. The most illustrative example is the long occupation of southern Lebanon, where functioning government institutions and security forces operated successfully on Israeli-controlled territory.

Fellow traveler, not ally

Still, the risks in Abu Shabab’s case are considerable, with reputational concerns chief among them. His involvement in looting humanitarian aid has led even his own family to disown him, calling the theft of food and medicine an “unforgivable crime.”

Moreover, despite all of Abu Shabab’s denials, many still view him as being affiliated with both ISIS and Israel. In much of the Arab world, this isn’t seen as a contradiction — thanks to widely believed conspiracy theories that portray ISIS as part of a Jewish anti-Arab plot. Some even go so far as to claim that the English acronym ISIS stands for Israel Secret Intelligence Service.

In other words, it’s unlikely that Yasser Abu Shabab will be offered any serious position, even if a new administration for Gaza is formed. He and Israel appear to be merely situational allies, united by nothing more than a common enemy: Hamas.

Incidentally, Hamas’s predecessor — the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood — was viewed by Israel in the 1970s as just such a situational ally in its fight against the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which at the time was Israel’s main enemy. Back then, the PLO was staunchly secular and sought to mobilize Palestinians not for a holy war, but for the creation of an independent national state. The Muslim Brotherhood, for its part, stayed out of politics and focused on building mosques and libraries. Israeli officials thought it would be a great idea to divert Palestinian attention away from nationalism and toward religion, and for years they therefore refrained from imposing any restrictions on the Brotherhood’s activities.

Israeli officials believed it would be a great idea to distract Palestinians away from nationalism by encouraging the promotion of religious groups


A little later, after the PLO had seen many of its most active members either arrested or forced into exile, the Muslim Brotherhood changed its stance on politics and became the main anti-Israeli force in the Palestinian territories. Netanyahu is almost certainly well aware of this history, which is why he is unlikely to let Abu Shabab’s group get too comfortable. That is, of course, if his plans for the complete destruction of Hamas are carried out.

NAKBA 2

Israeli plan to move Gazans into closed zone triggers backlash

A woman sitting amid debris looks on as Palestinians inspect destroyed tents at a makeshift displacement camp following a reported incursion a day earlier by Israeli tanks in the area in Khan Younis in the northern Gaza strip on Friday. | AFP-JIJI

By Gianluca PACCHIANI
AFP-JIJI
JULY 13, 2025
Jerusalem –

An Israeli proposal to move Gazans into what is being called a "humanitarian city" has come under intense fire, slammed by critics as a costly distraction at best, and at worst a potential step toward forcing Palestinians off of their land.

Defense Minister Israel Katz first unveiled the plan during a briefing with reporters last Monday. It envisions building from scratch a closed zone in southern Gaza during a potential 60-day ceasefire in Israel's war with Hamas, currently under negotiation in Qatar.

According to Katz, the area would initially house around 600,000 displaced people from southern Gaza and include four aid distribution sites managed by international organizations.

The entire civilian population of Gaza — more than 2 million people — would eventually be relocated there.

Critics, however, have questioned both the feasibility and ethics of the plan, with Israel's opposition leader citing its astronomical cost, and one expert pointing to lack of infrastructure in the area necessary to accommodate so many people.

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees has described the proposed facility as a "concentration camp," while Britain's minister for the Middle East and North Africa has said he is "appalled" by the idea

"Palestinian territory must not be reduced," the U.K.'s Hamish Falconer said on X. "Civilians must be able to return to their communities."

Nearly 21 months of war have devastated much of the Gaza Strip, displacing most of its population, creating dire shortages of food and other essentials, and killing 58,026 people, most of them civilians, according to the territory's health ministry.

The Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war led to 1,219 deaths, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures

New arrivals to the proposed facility would undergo security screening to ensure they are not affiliated with Hamas, and once admitted, they would not be permitted to leave.

The Israeli military would provide security "from a distance," Katz has said.

However, the criticism of the plan reportedly extends even to Israel's own security establishment.

Local media reported that army chief Eyal Zamir lambasted the proposal at a cabinet meeting, arguing it would divert focus from the military's two core objectives: defeating Hamas and securing the return of hostages taken on Oct. 7.

The broadcaster Channel 12 reported that unnamed security officials viewed the plan as little more than a "gigantic tent city," and warned it could pave the way for a return to Israeli military rule in Gaza.

Such a move aligns with the long-standing goals of far-right Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, key coalition partners of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Both Smotrich and Ben Gvir advocate the reestablishment of Jewish settlements in Gaza, from which Israel unilaterally withdrew in 2005, and have repeatedly called for the voluntary expatriation of Palestinians from Gaza.

The projected expense of the initiative — estimated between 10 and 20 billion shekels ($3 to $6 billion) — has further fueled domestic outrage as the cost of nearly two years of war mounts.

"That money is not coming back," opposition leader Yair Lapid said on X on Sunday.

"Netanyahu is letting Smotrich and Ben Gvir run wild with extremist delusions just to preserve his coalition. Instead of plundering the middle class's money, end the war and bring back the hostages."

The Palestinian Authority was scathing in appraisal of the proposed facility, with its foreign ministry saying: "The humanitarian city has nothing to do with humanity."

That view was echoed by UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, which said the "plan would de facto create massive concentration camps at the border with Egypt."

A Palestinian official with knowledge of the ongoing ceasefire talks in Qatar said Hamas rejected plans to concentrate Palestinians in a small part of the south, viewing it as "preparation for forcibly displacing them to Egypt or other countries."

Amnesty International, which has accused Israel of genocide, warned that relocating Gazans within the territory or "deporting them outside against their will would amount to the war crime of unlawful transfer."

On Friday, 16 Israeli scholars of international law sent a letter to Katz and Zamir also warning the scheme could amount to a war crime.

Michael Milshtein, an Israeli former military intelligence officer, called the plan one of many "fantasies" floated by Israel's leadership amid mounting public frustration with the war's trajectory and lack of a political solution.

He also noted there was no existing infrastructure in the proposed zone, raising questions about provision of electricity and water.

"There is only sand and fields, nothing," said Milshtein, who heads the Palestinian studies program at Tel Aviv University.

"Nobody tells the Israeli public what is the price and what are the consequences of reoccupying Gaza, from the economic, political and security points of view," he said.

"I really think that if people understand that the purpose of the war is the reoccupation of Gaza, there is going to be a lot of social unrest in Israel."

Israeli missile hits Gaza children collecting water, IDF blames malfunction

A Palestinian boy inspects the site of an Israeli strike that killed Palestinians, gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025.
PHOTO: Reuters

July 13, 2025 

JERUSALEM — At least eight Palestinians, most of them children, were killed and more than a dozen were wounded in central Gaza when they went to collect water on Sunday (July 13), local officials said, in an Israeli strike which the military said missed its target.

The Israeli military said the missile had intended to hit an Islamic Jihad militant in the area but that a malfunction had caused it to fall "dozens of metres from the target".

"The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians," it said in a statement, adding that the incident was under review.

The strike hit a water distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp, killing six children and injuring 17 others, said Ahmed Abu Saifan, an emergency physician at Al-Awda Hospital.

Water shortages in Gaza have worsened sharply in recent weeks, with fuel shortages causing desalination and sanitation facilities to close, making people dependant on collection centres where they can fill up their plastic containers.

A Palestinian inspects the site of an overnight Israeli strike on a house, in Gaza City July 13, 2025.
PHOTO: Reuters

Hours later, 12 people were killed by an Israeli strike on a market in Gaza City, including a prominent hospital consultant, Ahmad Qandil, Palestinian media reported. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attack.

Gaza's health ministry said on Sunday that more than 58,000 people had been killed since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October 2023, with 139 people added to the death toll over the past 24 hours.

The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its tally, but says over half of those killed are women and children.

Ceasefire?

US President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that he was "hopeful" on Gaza ceasefire negotiations underway in Qatar.

He told reporters in Teterboro, New Jersey, that he planned to meet senior Qatari officials on the sidelines of the FIFA Club World Cup final.

However, negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire have been stalling, with the two sides divided over the extent of an eventual Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave, Palestinian and Israeli sources said at the weekend.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to convene ministers late on Sunday to discuss the latest developments in the talks, an Israeli official said.

The indirect talks over a US proposal for a 60-day ceasefire are being held in Doha, but optimism that surfaced last week of a looming deal has largely faded, with both sides accusing each other of intransigence.

Netanyahu in a video he posted on Telegram on Sunday said Israel would not back down from its core demands — releasing all the hostages still in Gaza, destroying Hamas and ensuring Gaza will never again be a threat to Israel.

The war began on Oct 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages into Gaza. At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages there are believed to still be alive.

Families of hostages gathered outside Netanyahu's office in Jerusalem to call for a deal.

An Israeli APC manoeuvres in Gaza, near the Israel-Gaza border, July 13, 2025.

PHOTO: Reuters

"The overwhelming majority of the people of Israel have spoken loudly and clearly. We want to do a deal, even at the cost of ending this war, and we want to do it now," said Jon Polin, whose son Hersh Goldberg-Polin was held hostage by Hamas in a Gaza tunnel and slain by his captors in August 2024.

Netanyahu and his ministers were also set to discuss a plan on Sunday to move hundreds of thousands of Gazans to the southern area of Rafah, in what Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has described as a new "humanitarian city" but which would be likely to draw international criticism for forced displacement.

An Israeli source briefed on discussions in Israel said that the plan was to establish the complex in Rafah during the ceasefire, if it is reached.

On Saturday, a Palestinian source familiar with the truce talks said that Hamas rejected withdrawal maps which Israel proposed, because they would leave around 40 per cent of the territory under Israeli control, including all of Rafah.

Israel's campaign against Hamas has displaced almost the entire population of more than two million people, but Gazans say nowhere is safe in the coastal enclave.

Early on Sunday morning, a missile hit a house in Gaza City where a family had moved after receiving an evacuation order from their home in the southern outskirts.

"My aunt, her husband and the children, are gone. What is the fault of the children who died in an ugly bloody massacre at dawn?" said Anas Matar, standing in the rubble of the building.

Occupation commits systematic massacres against civilians by targeting water filling points

Published: 14 Jul 2025 - THE PENINSULA - QNA

Boys stand near a destroyed mobile water cistern that was hit by Israeli bombardment in the Nuseirat camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on July 14, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)

Gaza: The Government Media Office in Gaza emphasized that the Israeli occupation forces are waging a systematic war of deprivation, committing 112 massacres against water-filling queues, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians, the majority of whom were children, since Oct. 7, 2023.

In a statement on Monday, the office indicated that the most recent of these massacres occurred in the new camp, northwest of the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, and resulted in the death of 12 civilians, including 8 children.

It noted that the Israeli occupation continued to wage a systematic and deliberate war of starvation against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, in flagrant violation of all international and humanitarian conventions.

The office added that the occupation deliberately destroyed 720 water wells and put them out of service, depriving more than a million and a quarter people of access to clean water.

It pointed out that the occupation prevented the entry of 12 million liters of fuel per month, which is the amount necessary to operate the minimum number of water wells, sewage stations, waste collection mechanisms, and other vital sectors.

The office urged the international community, and all UN, international, and global human rights and legal institutions, to take urgent action to halt the war on water immediately, ensure unhindered access to water for civilians, and pressure the occupation to allow the entry of fuel and equipment necessary to operate water wells and sewage treatment plants.

It also stressed the need for an urgent international investigation into the crime of depriving civilians of water, as it is part of the ongoing genocide against civilians in the Gaza Strip.

It also stressed the need to hold the occupation accountable before international courts for its crimes against defenseless civilians, and to bring its criminal leaders to justice.

Children among 700 Palestinians killed waiting to get water in Gaza

Last updated: July 14, 2025 |

Displaced Palestinian man Akram Al Manasra collects water with his daughter amid shortages in Gaza City on Monday. Reuters

The government media office in Gaza says attacks on people waiting in line for water have killed more than 700 Palestinians as part of a “systematic thirst war,” a media outlet reported on Monday.

The Israeli army has targeted 112 freshwater filling points and destroyed 720 water wells, putting them out of service. This has deprived more than 1.25 million people of access to clean water, the office said in a statement.

“We affirm that this racist policy constitutes a full-fledged war crime under the Geneva Conventions, and a grave violation of international humanitarian law and human rights law.”


A boy draws water into a jerrycan from the tank of a destroyed mobile water cistern that was hit by Israeli bombardment in the Nuseirat camp. AFP

The office said Israel has prevented the entry of 12 million litres of fuel monthly, the amount necessary to operate the minimum number of water wells, sewage treatment plants, garbage collection vehicles and other vital services. This ban has “caused near-total paralysis of water and sewage networks and worsened the spread of diseases, especially among children,” the office said.

Gazans' daily struggle for water after deadly strike

The Al Manasra family rarely get enough water for both drinking and washing after their daily trudge to a Gaza distribution point like the one where eight people were killed on Sunday in a strike that Israel's military said had missed its target.


Displaced Palestinian man Akram Al Manasra and his children make their way to collect water from a distribution point amid shortages in Gaza City on Monday. Reuters

Living in a tent camp by the ruins of a smashed concrete building in Gaza City, the family say their children are already suffering from diarrhoea and skin maladies and from the lack of clean water, and they fear worse to come.

"There's no water, our children have been infected with scabies, there are no hospitals to go to and no medications," said Akram Manasra, 51.



A boy carries on his back a jerrycan filled with water drawn from the tank of a destroyed mobile water cistern. AFP

He had set off on Monday for a local water tap with three of his daughters, each of them carrying two heavy plastic containers in Gaza's blazing summer heat, but they only managed to fill two - barely enough for the family of 10. Gaza's lack of clean water after 21 months of war and four months of Israeli blockade is already having "devastating impacts on public health" the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA said in a report this month.

For people queuing at a water distribution point on Sunday it was fatal. A missile that Israel said had targeted militants but malfunctioned hit a queue of people waiting to collect water at the Nuseirat refugee camp.

Israel's blockade of fuel along with the difficulty in accessing wells and desalination plants in zones controlled by the Israeli military is severely constraining water, sanitation and hygiene services according to OCHA.


Children queue with pots to receive meals from a charity kitchen in Gaza City. AFP

Fuel shortages have also hit waste and sewage services, risking more contamination of the tiny, crowded territory's dwindling water supply, and diseases causing diarrhoea and jaundice are spreading among people crammed into shelters and weakened by hunger.

"If electricity was allowed to desalination plants the problem of a lethal lack of water, which is what's becoming the situation now in Gaza, would be changed within 24 hours," said James Elder, the spokesperson for the U.N.'s children's agency UNICEF.


A boy stands near a destroyed mobile water cistern that was hit by Israeli bombardment. AFP

"What possible reason can there be for denying of a legitimate amount of water that a family needs?" he added.

COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last week, an Israeli military official said that Israel was allowing sufficient fuel into Gaza but that its distribution around the enclave was not under Israel's purview.

THIRSTY AND DIRTY

For the Manasra family, like others in Gaza, the daily toil of finding water is exhausting and often fruitless.

Inside their tent the family tries to maintain hygiene by sweeping. But there is no water for proper cleaning and sometimes they are unable to wash dishes from their meagre meals for several days at a time.

Manasra sat in the tent and showed how one of his young daughters had angry red marks across her back from what he said a doctor had told them was a skin infection caused by the lack of clean water.

They maintain a strict regimen of water use by priority.

After pouring their two containers of water from the distribution point into a broken plastic water butt by their tent, they use it to clean themselves from the tap, using their hands to spoon it over their heads and bodies.

Water that runs off into the basin underneath is then used for dishes and after that - now grey and dirty - for clothes.

"How is this going to be enough for 10 people? For the showering, washing, dish washing, and the washing of the covers. It's been three months we haven't washed the covers, and the weather is hot," Manasra said.

His wife, Umm Khaled, sat washing clothes in a tiny puddle of water at the bottom of a bucket - all that was left after the more urgent requirements of drinking and cooking.

"My daughter was very sick from the heat rash and the scabies. I went to several doctors for her and they prescribed many medications. Two of my children yesterday, one had diarrhoea and vomiting and the other had fever and infections from the dirty water," she said.

Reuters / Agencies

Anger turns towards Washington in West Bank town mourning 2 men killed by settlers

People attend the funerals of Sayfollah Kamel Musallet, a Palestinian-American man who was beaten to death by settlers, and Mohammad Al-Shalabi, a man who was shot dead by Israeli forces, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, near Ramallah, in the Israel-occupied West Bank July 13, 2025.

PHOTO: Reuters

July 13, 2025 

AL-MAZRA'A ASH-SHARQIYA, West Bank — Frustration among Palestinians grew towards the United States on Sunday (July 13) as mourners packed the roads to a cemetery in the Israeli-occupied West Bank town of Al-Mazr'a Ash-Sharqiya for the burial of two men, one of them a Palestinian American, killed by settlers.

Palestinian health authorities and witnesses said Sayfollah Musallet, 21, was beaten to death, and Hussein Al-Shalabi, 23, was shot in the chest by settlers during a confrontation on Friday night.

Most of the small town's roughly 3,000 residents share family ties to the United States and many hold citizenship, including Musallet, who was killed weeks after flying to visit his mother in Al-Mazr'a Ash-Sharqiya, where he travelled most summers from Tampa, Florida.

"There's no accountability," said his father Kamel Musallet, who flew from the United States to bury his son.

"We demand the United States government do something about it... I don't want his death to go in vain."

Israeli killings of US citizens in the West Bank in recent years include those of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, Palestinian American teenager Omar Mohammad Rabea and Turkish American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi.

A US State Department spokesperson said on Friday it was aware of the latest death, but that the department had no further comment "out of respect for the privacy of the family and loved ones" of the victim.

Many family and community members said they expected more, including that the United States would spearhead an investigation into who was responsible.

A US State Department spokesperson on Sunday referred questions on an investigation to the Israeli government and said it "has no higher priority than the safety and security of US citizens overseas."

Read Also

US citizen killed in West Bank settler attack

The Israeli military had earlier said Israel was probing the incident. It said confrontations between Palestinians and settlers broke out after Palestinians threw rocks at Israelis, lightly injuring them.
'Betrayal'

Musallet's family said medics tried to reach him for three hours before his brother managed to carry him to an ambulance, but he died before reaching the hospital.

Local resident Domi, 18, who has lived in Al-Mazr'a Ash-Sharqiya for the last four years after moving back from the United States, said fears had spread in the community since Friday and his parents had discussed sending him to the United States.


"If people have sons like this they are going to want to send them back to America because it's just not safe for them," he said.

He had mixed feelings about returning, saying he wanted to stay near his family's land, which they had farmed for generations, and that Washington should do more to protect Palestinians in the West Bank.

"It's a kind of betrayal," he said.

Settler violence in the West Bank has risen since the start of Israel's war against Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza in late 2023, according to rights groups.

Dozens of Israelis have also been killed in Palestinian street attacks in recent years and the Israeli military has intensified raids across the West Bank.


Around 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 war.

US President Donald Trump in January rescinded sanctions imposed by the former Biden administration on Israeli settler groups and individuals accused of being involved in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Malik, 18, who used to visit Musallet's ice-cream shop in Tampa and had returned to the West Bank for a few months' vacation, said his friend's death had made him question his sense of belonging.

"I was born and raised in America, I only come here two months of a 12-month year, if I die like that nobody's going to be charged for my murder," he said, standing in the cemetery shortly before his friend was buried. "No one's going to be held accountable."

'So much hatred in their hearts': Family of US-born Palestinian killed by Israeli settlers tell of pain

Sayfollah Musallat was beaten to death in the town of Sinjil, north-east of Ramallah


THE NATIONAL
Updated: July 13, 2025,

Mourners gathered in the town of Turmus Aya in the occupied West Bank to receive the body of Sayafollah Musallat, a Palestinian-American man who was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in a violent attack near the town of Sinjil, north-east of Ramallah.

Mr Musallat, originally from Tampa, Florida, had travelled to the West Bank to visit family and help protect their land from increasing settler incursions.

He is the latest Palestinian-American to be killed in the territory, only weeks after the death of an American teenager left the community reeling.

At his family home, dozens of women lined the driveway early in the day, awaiting the arrival of the body. As the morning progressed, men gathered outside under the blazing sun, offering condolences. An ambulance arrived playing verses from the Quran, and when Mr Musallat’s body was finally brought out, mourners erupted in religious and political chants.

The presence of many American voices in the crowd was striking. Friends and relatives had flown in from Tampa, where Mr Musallat was born and raised. Among the mourners was a teenage boy who wept continuously, from the family home to the local cemetery. After a mass prayer held at a nearby school, the boy was heard crying into a friend’s shoulder, whispering, “I can’t breathe.

Kamal Abdel Jalil Al Hijaz, a senior member of the Musallat family, stood outside the house, welcoming mourners. Dressed in a traditional keffiyeh and leaning on a walking stick, he directed younger relatives to fetch water for the guests.

“The whole town feels the pain,” he said, his voice breaking. “I’m crying in front of you so that God hears us.”

He recalled that Mr Musallat had gone with a group of people, many of them US passport holders, to prevent settlers from encroaching on Palestinian land. “They thought the American passport might offer some protection,” he said. “But they attacked him. Now he’s a martyr.”

Jama’a Hijaz, 23, a close friend of Mr Musallat from Tampa, spoke of their years growing up together. “We used to hang out every day. He loved going to the shooting range. He ran an ice cream shop, and that’s where we’d always meet – he couldn’t leave because he worked so hard.”

Mr Hijaz described his friend as devout, kind, and committed to his faith. “He never missed a prayer. He was on the right path.”

He said the attack happened after Friday prayers, when news spread that settlers were targeting nearby land. “At first they said someone died. Then they said no. Then they said Saif was passing out. I texted him to ask if he was OK. Everyone said he was fine. Two hours later, we found out he died on the way to the hospital.”

According to Mr Hijaz, Mr Musallat was left injured in the sun for three hours before help arrived. Another man, Hussein Al Shalabi, was also killed – first beaten, then shot by the settlers as they left. Others were reportedly tied up and had their limbs broken.

“The settlers have so much hatred in their hearts,” Mr Hijaz said. “Humans don’t do this. They have compassion. They get scared when they see a dead body. I don’t know what we’re dealing with – these are evil people.”

He added that the shock of Mr Musallat’s death reached far beyond the West Bank. “Everyone I know in the US is devastated. A friend of mine from high school met Saif only once – he still cried when he heard the news. That’s the kind of person Saif was.”

“I’m still in shock. I didn’t believe it until I saw the picture,” Hijaz said. “But we’re going to keep coming back. This is our land. This is our home. Saif died for it.”

Palestinian American Death Under Investigation, Police Spokesperson’s Unit Says: ‘No Complaint, No Autopsy, No Evidence’

GABRIEL COLODRO
07/14/2025

THE MEDIALINE

Masked Israeli settlers hurl rocks at Palestinians from a hilltop near the village of Sinjil, in the West Bank, on July 4, 2025. (JOHN WESSELS/AFP via Getty Images)

The killing near Sinjil has intensified debate over West Bank clashes, competing claims of aggression, and the limits of accountability

A young Palestinian American was killed on Friday near the West Bank village of Sinjil, triggering renewed scrutiny of Israeli conduct in the territory and prompting calls for a US-led investigation. Israeli officials say the fatal incident occurred during a violent confrontation between civilians, but they are investigating without a formal complaint, autopsy, or access to the body.

The victim, Saif al-Din Kamil Abdul Karim Musalat, was a Florida-born US citizen in his early 20s visiting family in the West Bank. According to relatives, Musalat was attempting to protect family land from Israeli civilians trying to set up an unauthorized outpost when he was reportedly beaten for hours and died en route to the hospital. The family claims Israeli attackers blocked emergency responders and have called on Washington to investigate.

“This is an unimaginable nightmare and injustice that no family should ever have to face,” the Musalat family said in a statement. “We demand the US State Department lead an immediate investigation and hold the Israeli settlers who killed Saif accountable for their crimes. We demand justice.”

The US State Department confirmed Musalat’s death and said it is providing consular support to his family. “The US Department of State has no higher priority than the safety and security of US citizens overseas,” a spokesperson said, declining to comment further out of respect for the family’s privacy.

The incident unfolded around 3 p.m., when Israeli authorities say Palestinians began throwing rocks at Israeli civilians near Sinjil, approximately 10 miles north of Ramallah. Security forces from the Israel Police and the IDF were dispatched to the scene. According to a police spokesperson, “Following reports of a physical confrontation between civilians in the area of Judea and Samaria, Israel Police and Border Police forces were deployed to the scene alongside the IDF to disperse the unrest and restore order.”

Israeli authorities say the confrontation included property vandalism, arson, and rock throwing. Several individuals were detained: two Israeli civilians, two left-wing activists, one Palestinian, and one Israeli military reservist, who was later released after questioning. “An observation post was set up to document the events and gather evidence. The area was stabilized and the units withdrew,” the spokesperson told The Media Line.


We want to hold people accountable, but right now, we’re investigating a murder claim without evidence

The Israel Police and IDF Military Police have opened a joint investigation. But the lack of a formal complaint, autopsy, or access to Musalat’s body has left police relying solely on media reports. “If you’re investigating a murder, you need to examine the body,” the police spokesperson said. “We want to hold people accountable, but right now, we’re investigating a murder claim without evidence. All we have are media reports.”

A video released by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs shows Palestinians hurling stones at what appear to be Israeli civilians and vehicles. Israeli officials say this supports their version of events, in which Palestinian residents initiated the clash.

The Binyamin Regional Council released an unusual statement on Shabbat, calling the incident a premeditated terror attack. According to the council, dozens of “terrorists and Arab rioters,” accompanied by anarchist activists, attacked Jewish shepherds with stones and slingshots, burned equipment, and injured two people. The IDF reportedly uncovered several explosive devices concealed in stone barriers, allegedly meant to target Israeli soldiers. The council demanded that the army investigate the use of live fire and described the incident as a deliberate effort to displace Jews from the area.

Despite the absence of formal evidence, headlines around the world reported that Musalat had been “beaten to death by Israeli settlers.” No charges have been filed to support that claim.

Hamas has claimed Musalat as a fighter. The group frequently issues such declarations posthumously for symbolic or propaganda purposes, often without presenting evidence of an operational affiliation. No information has been made public that links Musalat to Hamas in any verifiable way.


Hamas posted on social media an image of Saif al-Din Musalat, claiming he is one of the terrorist group’s fighters. (Screenshot: X)

Brig. Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi, founder of the Israel Defense and Security Forum and former IDF deputy comptroller, told The Media Line the case reflects a broader issue of narrative distortion. “You’re labeling an entire population, 150,000 normative Israeli citizens in Judea and Samaria, based on the actions of a tiny fringe,” he said. “To talk about ‘settler violence’ is almost a racist concept.”


To talk about ‘settler violence’ is almost a racist concept

While acknowledging “there are small groups who may act outside the law,” Avivi said Israel’s institutions remain fully capable of handling such violations. “These individuals should be prosecuted accordingly. Israel is a state of law, and law is law.”

He added: “If it’s classified as terrorism, the Shin Bet handles it. If it’s criminal, the police handle it. People are investigated. People are brought to justice.”

Avivi rejected claims of systemic aggression from Israeli civilians, stating, “There’s no more violence in Judea and Samaria than in Tel Aviv.” He believes the international attention on West Bank clashes is part of an effort to delegitimize the Jewish right to live in the area.

Member of Knesset Zvi Sukkot, of the Religious Zionism party and a longtime resident of Judea and Samaria, also spoke to The Media Line. He described the reaction to the Sinjil incident as disproportionate. “We didn’t attack anyone. We didn’t expel anyone. We bought land and live here,” he said. “But the Arabs attack us because they refuse to accept even a single Jew in this land.”

Sukkot acknowledged isolated cases of violence by Jews but framed the broader dynamic differently: “In some specific cases, it’s possible a Jew attacked, but as a general rule, Arabs attack Jews, not the other way around.” Asked how civilian clashes emerge, he added: “People fight everywhere. It’s like asking how violence starts in Buenos Aires or New York. It happens.”

Palestinian human rights advocate Issa Amro, founder of Youth Against Settlements, also spoke to The Media Line and described Musalat’s death as part of a broader strategy of forced displacement. “It’s not settler violence, it’s settler terror now,” he said. According to Amro, Israeli civilians and armed personnel cooperate to make life unbearable for Palestinians, driving them from Area C. “Itamar Ben-Gvir gave out 150,000 rifles in the last 20 months. The majority of the weapons were given to settlers,” he claimed.

Avivi dismissed such accusations but said there is a broader philosophical gap. “For the Palestinian extremist worldview, there’s no difference between an Israeli living in Tel Aviv and one living in Judea and Samaria. To them, all Israelis are ‘settlers.’”

Amro, offering his own perspective, said: “First settlers came to the West Bank, not the Palestinians going to Israeli cities. The settlers are occupying land which is Palestine. According to international law, the settlers are war criminals.”

Avivi contended that the conflict was not only about territory but about narratives and legitimacy. “The entire Palestinian system, from the PA to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, is designed to produce violence and terror,” he said. “Yes, there is a fringe on the Israeli side that acts illegally, and they should be prosecuted. But on the Palestinian side, the whole system is built for confrontation.”

He opposed the idea of physical separation of populations. “This isn’t about building walls to stop all contact,” he said. “No country eliminates all violence. What matters is the trend, and the general trend is that things are improving.”

Amro disputed that assertion. “Even nonviolent resistance is illegal,” he said. “I was arrested, beaten, and convicted in military court for using a video camera.” On Musalat’s death, he said: “I think he was kidnapped while trying to defend a house or land, and beaten until he was dead,” though he admitted he did not witness the incident.

Palestinians die in silence. The international media is not telling the truth.

“Palestinians die in silence,” Amro added. “The international media is not telling the truth. And without concrete action, this will continue. There will be no peace.”

A second Palestinian, 23-year-old Mohammed Rizq Hussein al-Shalabi, was also killed during the incident. His body was found hours later with signs of severe bruising. It remains unclear whether he was shot by Israeli civilians or security personnel. Israeli police say they are attempting to coordinate with the Palestinian Authority to obtain access to both bodies for forensic examination.

As the Israeli investigation continues without a formal complaint, physical evidence, or autopsy results, both sides remain locked in a broader struggle over facts and legitimacy. In a region defined by disputed boundaries and deep mistrust, truth remains entangled in the space between what is seen, what is claimed, and what can be proved.

Felice Friedson and Giorgia Valente contributed to this report.

Family of Palestinian-American allegedly beaten to death by settlers in the West Bank calls for US investigation

The liberal Israel lobby J Street also called for a US-led investigation into the death.

Mourners carry the bodies of Mohammad al-Shalabi, 23, and Sayafollah Musallet, 20, during their funeral on July 13, 2025, in Al-Mazra'a ash-Sharqiya, east of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. (Mohammad Nazal / Middle East Images via AFP)
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By Grace Gilson

JEWISH TELEGRAPH NEWS

July 14, 2025

The family of a 20-year-old Palestinian-American man they say was beaten to death Friday by Israeli settlers in the West Bank has called on the U.S. State Department to investigate the incident.

“This is an unimaginable nightmare and injustice that no family should ever have to face,” the family of Sayafollah Musallet, also known as Saif, said in a statement. “We demand the U.S. State Department lead an immediate investigation and hold the Israeli settlers who killed Saif accountable for their crimes.”

According to his family and the Palestinian Health Ministry, Musallet had come from his home in Florida to the town of al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya to visit relatives, was severely beaten while protecting his family’s land in the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah. Another man, Hussein Al-Shalabi, 23, was fatally shot in the chest.

A State Department spokesperson confirmed in a statement that a U.S. citizen died in the West Bank on Friday but referred questions about any investigation into the incident to Israel’s government.

The killings come as tensions among Israeli settlers, Palestinians and the Israeli Defense Forces in the West Bank have escalated in recent weeks. Last month, far-right settler groups violently attacked two Palestinian villages in the West Bank and rioted outside of a major Israeli security facility.

Many extremist settlers are seen as emboldened following the Trump administration’s decision to cancel sanctions targeting dozens of far-right Israeli individuals and settler organizations accused by the Biden administration of violent extremism against Palestinians.

Following the confrontation on Friday, settlers allegedly blocked an ambulance and paramedics from reaching Musallet for three hours. Once the mob cleared, Mussallet’s younger brother carried him to an ambulance, but he died before reaching the hospital, according to a statement from the family.

The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem asked Israeli authorities for further details of Friday’s incident and is providing consular assistance to the family, an embassy spokesperson told CBS News.

“We are aware of reports regarding a Palestinian civilian killed and a number of injured Palestinians as a result of the confrontation, and they are being looked into by the ISA and Israel Police,” a statement on Friday from the Israel Defense Forces read.

Musallet was born and grew up in Port Charlotte, Florida, his father, Kamel Musallet, told the Washington Post. The pair were working together at an ice cream and dessert shop they opened recently in Tampa.

“He worked at his family’s ice cream shop in Tampa and was loved by so many people there. He was always kind and compassionate,” Musallet’s cousin Fatmah Muhammad told CBS News.

The town he was visiting, Al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya, has been dubbed the “Miami of the West Bank” for its large population of Palestinian expats that return to the town each summer, bringing wealth with them.

Following the killings, the liberal Israel lobby J Street called for “an independent, US-led investigation into the incident and its aftermath” in a statement.

“The unimaginable nightmare these families are enduring must not be compounded by injustice, inaction and a lack of accountability,” J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami said in the statement. “As Jewish and pro‑Israel Americans, we have an obligation to demand better.”