Tawfic Abdel Jabbar
توفيق عبد الجبار
Palestinian-American high-school senior from Louisiana · c. 2006–2024 · Al-Mazra'a ash-Sharqiya, occupied West Bank
Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, 17, a Louisiana native spending a year in his family's ancestral West Bank village, was shot in the head by Israeli fire while driving a pickup truck on a dirt road hundreds of meters from the highway; the sole witness called the shooting unprovoked, and the White House demanded a transparent investigation.
Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, 17, was born and raised in Gretna, Louisiana, where his family owns a chain of shoe stores; his parents had brought him and his four siblings to al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya, the West Bank village where the family’s roots run back nearly two centuries, so they could reconnect with Palestinian culture. A high-school senior studying remotely, he hoped to graduate within weeks and become an engineer. Palestinian health officials first identified him as Tawfiq Ajaq; his parents said the family name was Abdel Jabbar and their son’s first name was Tawfic.
On the afternoon of Friday, January 19, 2024, Tawfic and his friend Mohammed Salameh, 16, drove the family pickup toward the family’s fields for a picnic; turning back to fetch charcoal on a dirt road several hundred meters from Highway 60, the truck came under fire. Salameh, the sole passenger, told the Associated Press the shooting was unprovoked: at least ten bullets struck the truck, most of them hitting the back windshield and truck bed — an account the AP found consistent with the vehicle itself — and the fourth bullet hit Tawfic in the head before the truck flipped several times. When his father Hafeth and other relatives reached the scene, Israeli soldiers trained their guns on them as he pulled his son’s body from the wreck. Tawfic was pronounced dead at a Ramallah hospital.
Israeli police said the shooting targeted people “purportedly engaged in rock-throwing activities” along the highway and “ostensibly” involved an off-duty law enforcement officer, a soldier and a civilian; Salameh denied they had thrown stones, and video the father provided showed the truck about 500 meters from the highway. A police official later told the AP the witness account represented “one side of the story” and that the investigation was ongoing. The White House said it was “seriously concerned” and demanded a transparent investigation, and U.S. embassy officials visited the village. Hundreds buried him the next day. “My son, he was killed by — I don’t want to say American bullets, but at least by American money,” his mother Mona said. “My taxes are going to the bullet that killed my son.”
Sources
Open questions
Israeli police said the shooting 'ostensibly' involved an off-duty law enforcement officer, a soldier and a civilian, and opened an investigation; the family gave witness testimony, but no charges are known to have been filed.