Details have emerged of the killing of a 19-year-old American from Philadelphia who was shot dead by an armed Israeli settler during a raid on the Palestinian village of Mukhmas in the illegally occupied West Bank. The events were reconstructed by journalist Jasper Nathaniel, who interviewed multiple eyewitnesses present during the attack.
Nasrallah Abu Siyam was killed on the first full day of Ramadan after masked settlers, some armed with automatic weapons, stormed the small shepherding community alongside Israeli soldiers. At least four other Palestinians were shot, several more were beaten with metal rods, and more than 300 sheep and goats were driven off by settlers as troops fired tear gas and stun grenades into residential areas.
According to eyewitness testimony gathered by Nathaniel, the violence began at around 2:35 pm when a Palestinian shepherd grazing livestock near the village was surrounded by settlers attempting to seize his flock. He managed to escape and alert residents, who gathered near the girls’ school to form a human barrier to prevent the theft of their animals.
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Among the settlers was a man identified by villagers as Amir, reportedly a security guard at a nearby outpost, armed with an M16 rifle. Witnesses said he fired into the air and ordered residents to retreat, promising to escort the settlers away.
Minutes later, additional settlers arrived, accompanied by approximately five Israeli soldiers. Villagers say the same military unit frequently appears during similar incursions in the area. Settlers and soldiers again ordered residents to withdraw, assuring them their livestock would not be touched. But as villagers stepped back, settlers opened the enclosures and began driving the animals away.
At 3:27 pm, Israelis opened fire when a Palestinian men attempted to retrieve their sheep and goats. Settlers and soldiers beat several men, while troops fired tear gas and stun grenades into the village. An elderly man was reportedly burned by a canister. Women and children could be heard screaming from inside their homes.
As chaos spread, a group of villagers took a back route to intercept settlers driving off their livestock, the primary source of income for several families. One man was surrounded and beaten unconscious with metal rods.
At 3:48 pm, a settler raised his M16 and opened fire into the crowd of villagers rushing to rescue the injured man. Witnesses said four or five other settlers followed, shooting live rounds at Palestinians on their own land. At least five men were hit.
Nasrallah Abu Siyam was shot in the thigh, the bullet severing his main artery. After he fell, settlers reportedly struck him with rods. At least one gunman dropped to one knee in a firing position, deliberately aiming at those attempting to carry the wounded to safety.
Throughout the shooting, soldiers positioned nearby continued firing tear gas into the village.
When the gunfire stopped, neither settlers nor soldiers provided medical assistance. Instead, they withdrew together, while settlers walked off with hundreds of animals under military watch.
An ambulance called to the scene was unable to pass an Israeli military checkpoint. Villagers loaded the wounded into private cars and attempted to drive toward Ramallah. Traffic near the checkpoint became gridlocked. As Nasrallah bled heavily in the back seat, other drivers attempted to clear a path.
When vehicles could move no further, men carried him on foot to a waiting ambulance. He arrived at hospital nearly two hours after being shot. Doctors attempted to save him for four and a half hours, but he had lost too much blood. At 10 pm, he was pronounced dead.
Nasrallah is at least the seventh American citizen killed by Israeli settlers or soldiers in the West Bank since October 2023. In none of the cases have perpetrators been held accountable.
‘Like the Jim Crow South’
Reflecting on the killing, Nathaniel compared conditions in the occupied West Bank to the atmosphere of the Jim Crow South in the US, where racial terror and lynchings were used to dispossess Black families and enforce segregation.
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“I can only imagine it as something akin to the atmosphere Black families described in parts of the Jim Crow South, where the Ku Klux Klan rode at night, the law often on their side, delivering warnings in fire and blood,” said Nathaniel. “Lynchings were staged to strike maximum fear into the hearts of entire communities—to enforce racial hierarchy, crush political participation, and drive families from land and livelihoods they had built. The message was unmistakable: you have no protection here, and whatever you have can be taken”.
Nathaniel explained that unlike the American south, settlers “operate not with tacit protection from the law, as the KKK did, but with the visible backing of soldiers and a state apparatus.”
