 Starkey was robbed and killed near Bayt Jibrin on a track leading from Bayt Jibrin to Hebron.Issa Battat, a rebel commander from the ad-Dhahiriya area who led a rebel unit during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine against the British, was held responsible by the British authorities for Starkey's killing.Battat was later killed in an ambush by British forces in May 1938.