01/27/2024

An American Teen was Killed in the West Bank

His family wants answers

The air was fresh and the sky clear on Jan. 19 in this Palestinian village, and 17-year-old Tawfic Abdel Jabbar wanted to be outside with his friends.

The photo roll on his cellphone was filled with pictures showing how much his life had changed in the nine months since he had moved from Gretna, Louisiana, to his grandfather’s West Bank home. The American teenager was thriving, his family said, having effortlessly adjusted to life in their ancestral community. When his mother, Mona Abdel Jabbar, called him that afternoon, he told her he was driving toward the olive groves for a barbecue. He would not be long, he said.

He did not see who fired the first bullet, or the barrage that followed, according to his friend Mohammed Salameh, who was in the passenger seat that day. Photographs of their battered blue Mitsubishi suggest the shots came from behind, as the boys were driving away. Tawfic was hit in the head and lost control of the vehicle, Salameh said, slumping onto the steering wheel as the car flipped over several times.

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Washington Post.