Israeli police have killed two young Palestinian brothers and their parents in the occupied West Bank, shooting all four in the head and face as the family returned from a Ramadan shopping trip. Mohammed, five, Othman, seven, who was blind and had special needs, their mother Waad Bani Odeh, 35, and father Ali Bani Odeh, 37, were driving through their home town of Tamoun late on Saturday when Israeli forces opened fire.
The attack brought the number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank to 11 in recent weeks, amid a surge of violence since Israel and the US launched their war on Iran. Two brothers survived the shooting. Khaled, 11, said he heard his mother crying and his father praying before they died. After the gunfire stopped, Israeli border police dragged him out of the wreckage, taunted him about the murders and attacked him, telling him 'we killed dogs'.
The family had been in Nablus to buy clothes for Eid. Israeli forces initially prevented ambulances reaching the scene, the Palestinian Red Crescent said. The military later towed the family car away. The Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs called the killings 'a shocking act of extrajudicial execution'. A spokesperson for Israeli police said forces opened fire after perceiving an 'immediate threat' when the vehicle accelerated, but declined to comment on the threat posed by children or whether rules of engagement were violated.
Israeli forces target Palestinians with near total impunity in the occupied West Bank, where the last homicide indictment for a shooting was in 2019, according to Yesh Din. Since then, Israeli forces have killed more than 1,400 people, including over 320 children, UN figures show.
