West Bank Tributes to Florida shop owner killed by settlers

When Fatmah Muhammad thinks about her younger cousin Sayfollah Musallet, known as Saif, she pictures him behind the counter of his ice-cream shop in Tampa Bay, Florida, decorating Muhammad's knafeh with the same effort he brought to everything else.

- Joseph Gedeon

She makes the dessert from scratch, and would sometimes ship it from California, where she lives, to Florida. Saif would sell the Palestinian dessert in his ice-cream shop, which carried treats from around the world.

Now, less than a year after opening that shop, Saif is dead - beaten to death by Israeli settlers on his family's farm in the occupied West Bank while he was visiting relatives. His death has left a family shattered and a community demanding answers.

Saif's eldest uncle, Hesam Musallet, said of his nephew: "He would walk into a room and the room would light up. If people were sitting down, he would shake hands with everybody."

Customers at the ice-cream shop told Fatmah how if someone came in short on cash, Saif would quietly cover their tab without making them feel embarrassed.

"He really made everyone feel like family," Fatmah remembers.