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He loved to play basketball with his friends. He dreamed of studying business administration to help his family\u2019s stores. He enjoyed taking care of his younger siblings and was \u201cvery polite, very respectful, very intelligent,\u201d according to his mosque\u2019s president. Then, suddenly, a bullet to his head ended everything. <\/p>\n
A Palestinian-American teenager was killed by a barrage of gunfire in the occupied West Bank on Friday.<\/a> The U.S. State Department confirmed the killing without naming the victim, but the teenager\u2019s family identified him as Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, 17. The details of Tawfic\u2019s death were unclear, but the Israeli police has said<\/a> that the killing involved an off-duty law enforcement officer and an Israeli civilian, and that they were investigating the incident. <\/p>\n Tawfic was born to Palestinian parents and was raised in the suburbs of New Orleans. His grandfather had come to America \u201clooking for the American dream,\u201d said Sherean Murad, the assistant principal at the Muslim Academy in Gretna, who taught Tawfic civics when he was in the 11th grade. <\/p>\n Tawfic and his family had moved to the West Bank temporarily in May to connect with relatives \u2014 he hoped to improve his Arabic while he was there and planned to return to the United States for college.<\/p>\n News of his death left friends and relatives in Louisiana in disbelief.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are livid as a community, because it\u2019s so senseless,\u201d Ms. Murad said. <\/p>\n Tawfic\u2019s second cousin, Mohammad Abdelwahhab, a medical assistant in New Orleans, was still trying to process the news on Saturday.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a shock,\u201d said Mr. Abdelwahhab, 21. He added, \u201cThis is a shock to the whole family, the community and anyone else with a heart that knows him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s so young,\u201d Mr. Abdelwahhab said, adding, \u201cHe was just about to celebrate his graduation and finish and he was going to go on with his goals.\u201d<\/p>\n On Saturday, large crowds of friends and relatives gathered to mourn. During the day, an open house was held at Tawfic\u2019s uncle\u2019s home, where children and women shared memories of the teenager over strong cups of coffee, dates and plates of yellow rice and lamb. In the backyard, men young and old gathered to eat and celebrate Tawfic\u2019s life.<\/p>\n Tawfik Abdeljabar, 23, a close cousin with the same name but a different spelling, said that he and Tawfic had felt like twins. \u201cWe would joke about who got the better name. I would say K was better, and he would say C,\u201d Mr. Abdeljabar said.<\/p>\n Another cousin, Zarifa Abdeljabar, 22, recalled memories of the two of them in the West Bank, specifically when they went on drives for iced coffees and enjoyed the peace of the mountains. <\/span><\/p>\n Because Tawfic was killed in a religious conflict, he is considered a martyr, Ms. Abdeljabar said. \u201cA warrior of God,\u201d she called him. <\/p>\n In the evening, a vigil was held for the men of Masjid Omar, the mosque in Harvey, La., that Tawfic had attended. Hundreds were there, with many wearing the Palestinian kaffiyeh scarf.<\/p>\n In an interview with The New York Times, Nabil Abukhader, the president of Masjid Omar, urged the Biden administration to do more to \u201cfight for our rights as Americans.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s important we protect our children from this killing cycle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Some family members missed the Saturday gatherings, including two of Tawfic\u2019s uncles and his older brother, who flew out to the West Bank as soon as they heard the news. <\/p>\n One of his cousins was in deep mourning when she went into labor on Friday and gave birth to a baby boy. <\/p>\n She named him Tawfic, with a C.<\/p>\n Gaya Gupta, Roni Caryn Rabin, Rami Nazzal and Anushka Patil contributed reporting.<\/p>\n