SAEDNEWS: The US ambassador to Tel Aviv has refused to confirm two Palestinian Americans’ deaths at the hands of the Israeli regime’s illegal settlers in the occupied West Bank in July.
Mike Huckabee made the remarks to CBS News on Friday, refuting the developments’ confirmation by eyewitnesses, local officials, and multiple media reports.
First killing: Saif Musallet
On July 11, 20-year-old Saif Musallet was beaten to death by settlers confronting pro-Palestinian rallies in the village of Sinjil in north-central West Bank. Asked by CBS who was responsible, Huckabee’s response was evasive.
“We just got his medical records back about a week ago… I have asked for, and will continue to demand, a full-throated investigation… I’m not going to jump to the conclusion that we know that it’s settlers. It may have been, but we don’t know.”
Second killing: Khamis al-Ayyad
On July 31, settlers torched homes and vehicles in the town of Silwad near the city of Ramallah.
Amid the chaos, tear gas fired by the Israeli military, which regularly turns up in support of the settlers during such incidents, filled the air. Khamis al-Ayyad died from smoke inhalation, his family believing the gas has hastened his death.
Still offering a foggy response, Huckabee said, “There are a lot of questions… it’s not always simple to get the full cooperation of all the authorities… but we certainly are asking a lot of questions about who did this.”
Despite public promises, Huckabee also refused to confirm whether the US had reached out to the Ayyad family. The State Department claims consular assistance was being provided, but relatives told Taha Syed, contributor to Drop Site News, an American website, “No one has contacted us.”
Ayyad leaves behind five children, aged six to 16.
The Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) National is urging the Justice Department to launch a formal investigation, invoke the US–Israel Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, and declare that American citizenship does not lose its value “based on the identity of the perpetrator.”
In a series of sweeping denials, Huckabee also dismissed famine images from the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli regime has been weaponizing starvation as part of its October 2023-present war of genocide on the territory.
He blamed the starvation on Gaza’s Hamas resistance movement, and repeated long-debunked propaganda from October 7, when the group launched a resistance operation against the occupied Palestinian territories, to argue against negotiations.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the envoy addressed daily killings at the United States-backed so-called food distribution sites set up by the regime in Gaza.
“Do you honestly think it’s some US contractors, or it’s the IDF (the Israeli military) just gunning people down? Or is it Hamas…?”
This, despite Doctors Without Borders’ having declared the sites “a laboratory of cruelty… designed for the orchestrated killing of starving Palestinians,” with over 1,700 dead since the notorious program began.
Finally, Huckabee pointed to the Israeli regime’s widely-reported plans to occupy the entire Gaza Strip, suggesting that, despite being Tel Aviv’s biggest supporter, Washington did not bear any responsibility towards dissuading the regime.
“It’s the decision that the Israelis, and only the Israelis can have.”
