In a Grim Update to a List That Should Not Exist, DAWN Adds Abu Siyam as the 14th U.S. Citizen Killed by Israeli Soldiers or Settlers With Zero Accountability
(Washington, D.C., February 25, 2026) – The U.S. government should investigate and ensure accountability for the murder of Nasrallah Abu Siyam, a 19-year-old American citizen from Philadelphia shot dead by Israeli settlers last week in the occupied West Bank, said DAWN today. As highlighted in DAWN's list of 14 Americans killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers since 2003, Israel has failed to hold anyone criminally accountable for those killings.
"The Trump Administration should not only be demanding a full Israeli investigation into the murder of a U.S. citizen but, considering Israel's abysmal track record of holding settlers accountable, should launch its own investigation," said Raed Jarrar, Advocacy Director at DAWN. "These killings will not end until the U.S. government steps in and creates accountability where Israel has abdicated its duties."
DAWN is adding Abu Siyam to its American Body Count tracker as the fourteenth U.S. citizen killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers since 2003. The list includes Rachel Corrie, Omar Assad, Shireen Abu Akleh, Aysenur Eygi, and Sayfollah Musallat, among others. Eight of those 14 American citizens have been killed since January 2024. Not one Israeli soldier or settler has been criminally prosecuted for any of these killings. The State Department has accepted Israeli self-investigation every single time.
On February 18, 2026 approximately 30 masked settlers, some armed with M-16 rifles, raided the West Bank village of Mukhmas accompanied by Israeli soldiers, according to witness testimonies collected by journalists and human rights investigators. Settlers shot Abu Siyam in the thigh, severing his main artery, and beat him with metal rods and clubs while he lay bleeding. Israeli soldiers on the scene did not intervene, did not arrest anyone, did not provide any medical care, and withdrew alongside the settlers, who stole more than 300 sheep and goats. Israeli soldiers blocked a Palestinian ambulance from reaching Abu Siyam, who was eventually carried outside the village on foot. He was pronounced dead at 10:00 PM. Israeli authorities have not arrested or charged anybody in connection with the killing.
"Israeli settler violence goes beyond an extension of state violence, as demonstrated by the often-direct role of Israeli soldiers in these attacks—the current Israeli government has effectively made clear that settler violence is its policy," said Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, Israel-Palestine director at DAWN. "The murder, intimidation, and harassment of settler violence is part and parcel of Israel's efforts to ethnically cleanse and annex the occupied Palestinian territory."
Israel's track record of investigating and holding accountable Israeli soldiers and settlers for killing American citizens, Palestinian-Americans, journalists, and Palestinians, has not been transparent, credible or reliable. Israeli authorities have taken no serious punitive measures against the perpetrators of previous killings of U.S. citizens.
According to data from Israeli human rights group Yesh Din, the "probability of an Israeli soldier facing prosecution for killing Palestinians is just 0.4% – one prosecution in 219 fatalities brought to the military's attention." When it comes to Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, the chances for accountability are just as bleak. Between the years of 2005 and 2024, Yesh Din's monitoring found that "only 3% of investigations into ideologically motivated crime against Palestinians in the West Bank led to a full or partial conviction. This low conviction rate has – for at least two decades – signaled that law enforcement agencies do not take settler violence seriously, enhancing the perpetrators' sense of immunity and encouraging the recurrence of these acts."
The previous U.S. administration took important steps attempting to curb the phenomenon of settler impunity with the issuance of Executive Order 14115 in February 2024, creating a sanctions program targeting settlers implicated in violence against Palestinians. President Trump revoked E.O. 14115 on his first day in office, effectively removing 33 sanctioned settlers and settler organizations from the Treasury's designations. In the year that followed, Israeli settler violence rose 27 percent, with severe incidents spiking by more than 50 percent. One previously sanctioned settler, Yinon Levi, subsequently shot and killed Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen, who worked on the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land.
"The U.S. government's inaction in the face of settler violence directly contributed to the atmosphere of impunity that got Nasrallah Abu Siyam killed," said Charles Blaha, Senior Advisor at DAWN and former Director of the Office of Security and Human Rights at the U.S. Department of State. "When President Trump revoked settler sanctions on his first day in office, he sent an unmistakable signal to settlers and to the Government of Israel that this is no longer a priority of the United States."
When Israeli settlers killed Palestinian-American Sayfollah Musallat in 2025, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee called it "a criminal and terrorist act" but neither he nor the State Department took any action in the face of settler impunity for the killing. Huckabee has thus far said nothing about the killing of Nasrallah Abu Siyam.
The same day that settlers killed Abu Siyam, Huckabee was interviewed by Tucker Carlson, and stated that Area C, the majority of the occupied West Bank, "is Israel," and that it would be "fine" if Israel conquered the entire Middle East. Fourteen Arab and Muslim nations and three regional bodies condemned the remarks as "dangerous and inflammatory." The State Department reportedly called Arab governments privately to clarify that Huckabee's views were his own.
"This is not a series of tragic accidents. It is a policy of treating Palestinian-American lives as worth less than other American lives," said Omer-Man. "That policy will produce a fifteenth killing, and a sixteenth, until the United States government decides to enforce its own laws."
For the latest on Israeli settler violence against Americans, visit DAWN's American Body Count tracker, which documents every U.S. citizen killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers since 2003, with no accountability.
