He did not see who fired the first shot, nor the barrage of bullets that followed, according to his friend Muhammad Salama, who was in the passenger seat that day. Photos of the wrecked blue Mitsubishi indicate the shots came from behind, as the two boys drove away. Salama said that Tawfiq was injured in the head, lost control of the car, and fell on the steering wheel when the car flipped several times.
The Abdul-Jabbar family home was devastated this week when their personal tragedy made international headlines. His parents, surrounded by mourners, were impatiently grappling with the loss of their second son, even as news spread to the White House. Journalists and other strangers kept calling.
“My son was executed,” said Hafez Abdul Jabbar, Tawfiq’s father. “I know nothing can bring him back, but I'm telling you this because maybe someone else's child can be saved.”
The State Department said that Tawfiq is the 358th Palestinian, according to the United Nations, and the first American, to be killed in the occupied West Bank since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. As global attention focuses on the rising death toll in Gaza, Palestinians in the West Bank are being killed at unprecedented rates, falling victim to intensified Israeli military raids and escalating settler violence. They have come to expect that their deaths rarely make the news and rarely lead to convictions.
“If this child had not been American, he would have been just another number, and this is what they were counting on,” said Ziad Mustafa, a family friend who flew in overnight from Dallas to join the family in their grief. “It hurts to say that.”
The circumstances of Tawfiq's death remain mysterious. The public statement from the Israeli police offers little evidence about who was responsible, saying only that an off-duty officer, a soldier, and an Israeli settler were all involved in “discharging a firearm… directed at a perceived threat” — which has been identified. as “individuals allegedly involved in stone-throwing activities along Highway 60.”
Salama, who was slightly injured in the incident, said that everything was calm before the gunfire rang out. He said no one was throwing rocks, certainly not his friend, who had his hands on the wheel and his eyes on the road as he looked for a place to cook.
“Two bullets came in [back windshield] Salama narrated: “And I broke the glass.” “The fourth bullet hit his head. …Blood fell on my shirt and hands.”
Israeli police said they had begun a “comprehensive investigation.” The IDF directed all inquiries to the police; The Commission for the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, the Israeli agency responsible for civil affairs in the West Bank, did not respond to a request for comment.
Tawfiq was born and raised in Louisiana. His father said he was “full of life, full of love.”
Hafez Abdul-Jabbar owned a series of businesses in Gretna, 12 miles south of New Orleans, but he and his wife wanted their children to reconnect with their roots. Tawfiq loved it here from the moment they arrived in May, his parents said: He spent so much time in the forest, or walking around with friends, that it felt like they barely saw him anymore.
They understood, though. “He was a teenager,” Hafez Abdul-Jabbar said.
He was taking classes online, preferring computers to paper books. He has yet to decorate the room he shares with his youngest son He told his mother, brother, because he left his favorite posters in us.
The world around him was changing. Israelite settlements expanded rapidly in the years the family spent in Louisiana. Palestinian fighters have become the de facto authorities in West Bank refugee camps, sparking increasingly bloody confrontations with Israeli soldiers. The return of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to power at the head of a far-right coalition in late 2022 empowered extremist settlers, who accelerated attacks on Palestinian communities. Impunity was the rule.
Of the 160 cases of settler violence against Palestinians or their property documented by Yesh Din, a leading Israeli human rights group, between January and September 2023, more than half of the victims chose not to file a formal complaint, or express their disapproval. Trust in Israeli law enforcement, or say they fear retaliation.
Since 2005, only 3% of known cases brought by Palestinians against Israeli settlers have resulted in a conviction, according to Yesh Din. It is also rare for law enforcement or security forces to face prosecution, the group says.
In the weeks following October 7, when Hamas militants killed 1,200 people in southern Israel, the hard-right National Security Minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, sought to ease Israel's strict gun laws. Volunteer security groups in West Bank settlements began arming themselves. The United Nations said attacks on Palestinian communities have become more common and more violent.
The Biden administration condemned the violence and imposed a travel ban on settlers suspected of carrying out attacks against Palestinians. It also helped speed up the shipment of weapons to be used by Israeli forces in Gaza, where more than 25,000 people were killed, many of them women and children, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
As the family watched footage of the bloodshed, Mona Abdul-Jabbar, in particular, became concerned. Israeli security forces were closing roads throughout the West Bank. There were reports of arrests in towns and villages daily. The family said that one of Tawfiq's cousins was stopped at a checkpoint and was insulted.
Tawfiq was traveling freely with his friends before October 7. After the attack, he had been making trips with his mother the night before. “My heart was just worried,” she said.
But everyone felt calm that Friday afternoon when Tawfiq and Salama went to look for a place to barbecue. Mona called her son at 2:30 p.m., asking him to come home so he could help his father with something. He told her he was having fun.
Tawfiq died the moment he entered the hospital at 4:03 p.m., according to the initial medical report issued by the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah. The bullet that killed him was still stuck in his brain.
In Harvey, Louisiana, leaders of the Omar Mosque, where the teenager was praying, did their best to console his former classmates. “Are you sure he's dead?” Nabil Abu Khader, the head of the mosque, narrated that one of the students asked:
“Are you sure this is Tawfiq?”
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said White House officials were “deeply concerned” about the incident.
“We don't have perfect context on exactly what happened here,” Kirby said. “We will be in constant contact with our counterparts in the region to obtain more information.”
At home on Monday, Hafez Abdul-Jabbar looked hollow. He has been up since 3 a.m. talking to the American media about his son's case, hoping it will lead to some form of justice.
He added: “I do not trust this investigation.”
As mourners came and went on Wednesday, his friend Ziad Mustafa spoke quietly, holding back tears.
“I feel proud to be an American, I really do,” he said. “But as a person with Palestinian roots, it pains me that the country that we live in and love and are willing to sacrifice for, the tax money I pay, is killing my people.”
“And with all due respect, with all due respect, you wouldn't be here if he was just a Palestinian. You're here because he's American. …It's just the damn passport.
Heidi Levin in Eastern Farm and Heidi Perez Moreno and Dan Rosenzweig Ziff in Washington contributed to this report.
