when they do<\/a>, indictments are uncommon.<\/p>\nThe U.S. Justice Department has jurisdiction to investigate the deaths of its own citizens abroad, but does so after it gets permission from the host government and usually works with the host country\u2019s law enforcement. The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem declined to say whether the U.S. has launched independent probes into the killings.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the embassy said in a statement that investigations are \u201cunderway\u201d in Israel over the deaths of the four Americans and that its staff is pressing the Israeli authorities to move quickly and transparently.<\/p>\n
Sen. Van Hollen said that when the U.S deals with Israel it \u201ceither doesn\u2019t pursue these cases with the vigor necessary, or we don\u2019t get any serious cooperation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then instead of demanding cooperation and accountability, we sort of stop \u2014 and that\u2019s unacceptable. It\u2019s unacceptable to allow American citizens to be killed with impunity,\u201d the Maryland Democrat said.<\/p>\n
Israel says it holds soldiers and settlers accountable<\/p>\n
Israel says it holds soldiers and settlers to account under the bounds of the law, and that the lack of indictments does not mean a lack of effort.<\/p>\n
A prominent recent case was the death of Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist for broadcaster Al Jazeera killed in the West Bank in 2022. An independent U.S. analysis of the circumstances of her death found that fire from an Israeli soldier was \u201clikely responsible\u201d for her killing but said it appeared to be an accident.<\/p>\n
Despite an Israeli military investigation with similar conclusions, no one was ever disciplined.<\/p>\n
Violence by Israeli forces and settlers has flared in the West Bank since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023. More than 950 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the war in Gaza, according to the United Nations. Some have been militants killed in fighting with Israel, though the dead have also included stone-throwers and bystanders uninvolved in violence.<\/p>\n
Instead of justice, restrictions and detentions<\/p>\n
Rather than a path toward justice, the families of Khdour, Rabee, and Abdel Jabbar say they\u2019ve faced only challenges since the deaths.<\/p>\n
Khdour, born in Miami, Florida, was shot and killed in April 2024 while driving in Biddu, a West Bank town near Jerusalem where he lived since age 2. U.S. investigators visited his family after the killing, his family said. Abdel Jabbar was killed while driving down a dirt road close to Al Mazra as-Sharqiya, his village in the northern West Bank.<\/p>\n
Khdour\u2019s cousin, Malek Mansour, the sole witness, told the AP he was questioned by both Israeli and American investigators and repeated his testimony that shots came from a white pickup on Israeli territory. <\/p>\n
He believes the investigators did not push hard enough to figure out who killed his cousin.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe matter ended like many of those who were martyred (killed),\u201d said Hanan Khdour, Khdour\u2019s mother. <\/p>\n
Two months after the death, Israeli forces raided the family\u2019s home and detained Mohammad\u2019s brother, Omar Khdour, 23, also an American citizen. <\/p>\n
Videos taken by family and shared with the AP show Omar Khdour blindfolded and handcuffed as Israeli soldiers in riot gear lead him out of the building and into a military jeep. <\/p>\n
He said he was threatened during questioning, held from 4 a.m. to 3 p.m., and warned not to pursue the case. <\/p>\n
\u2018Here, being American means nothing\u2019<\/p>\n
Omar Khdour said Israeli soldiers at checkpoints have prevented him from leaving the West Bank to visit Israel or Jerusalem. Two other American fathers of Palestinian-Americans killed since Oct. 7, 2023 reported similar restrictions.<\/p>\n
Hafeth Abdel Jabbar, Tawfic Abdel Jabbar\u2019s father, said he and his wife were blocked from leaving the West Bank for seven months. His son, Amir Abdel Jabbar, 22, remains restricted.<\/p>\n
The father of Amer Rabee says he and his wife have also been stuck in the West Bank since their son\u2019s killing. He showed AP emails from the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem in which a consular official told him that Israel had imposed a travel ban on him, though it was unclear why. <\/p>\n
Israeli authorities did not respond to comment on the detentions or travel restrictions.<\/p>\n
Rabee said that in a land where violence against Palestinians goes unchecked, his family\u2019s American passports amounted to nothing more than a blue book.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are all American citizens,\u201d Rabee said. \u201cBut here, for us, being American means nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BIDDU, West Bank (AP) \u2014 When Sayfollah Musallet of Tampa, Florida, was beaten to death by Israeli settlers…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":94234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[97,62258,3881,28425,69,6064,723,57,62259,4221,99,3462,2936,362,410,3463,28281,62260,401,50,6067,62257,11335,80,3981,61,67,370,132,68,17262,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-94233","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-2024-2025-mideast-wars","10":"tag-amir-abdel-jabbar","11":"tag-ap-top-news","12":"tag-chris-van-hollen","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-fl-state-wire","15":"tag-florida","16":"tag-general-news","17":"tag-hanan-khdour","18":"tag-homicide","19":"tag-israel","20":"tag-israel-government","21":"tag-law-enforcement","22":"tag-legal-proceedings","23":"tag-marco-rubio","24":"tag-mideast-wars","25":"tag-mike-huckabee","26":"tag-mohammad-khdour","27":"tag-new-jersey","28":"tag-news","29":"tag-nj-state-wire","30":"tag-omar-khdour","31":"tag-pam-bondi","32":"tag-politics","33":"tag-teens","34":"tag-u-s-news","35":"tag-united-states","36":"tag-united-states-government","37":"tag-unitedstates","38":"tag-us","39":"tag-west-bank","40":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114919900695187870","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}