Israeli police kill two young Palestinian boys and their parents in West Bank | West Bank
Israeli police killed two 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.
Five-year-old Mohammed, seven-year-old Othman, who is blind and has special needs, their mother Waad Bani Odeh, 35, and their father Ali Bani Odeh, 37, were as Israeli forces passed through their hometown of Tamoun late on Saturday.
Israeli forces have been targeting Palestinians with near impunity in the occupied West Bank, where the last attack that led to a murder indictment was a shooting in 2019, according to legal data compiled by Israeli human rights group Yesh Din.
Since then, Israeli forces have killed more than 1,400 people, including more than 320 children and more than 30 women, according to UN figures. Israeli settlers killed at least 44 more Palestinians.
The Bani Odeh family was killed just hours after Israeli settlers shot and killed 28-year-old Amir Moatasem Odeh in Qusra, south of Nablus. The attackers also stabbed his father, Muatasem Awda, who was hospitalized in serious condition.
There has been an increase in Israeli violence against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank since Israel and the United States launched a war against Iran at the end of February.
Israeli settlers shot and killed six civilians during their invasion of Palestinian olive groves, villages and pasture lands over more than two weeks, and one man died after inhaling military-grade tear gas used by the Israeli army.
The number of Palestinians killed in the attack on the Beni Udeh family increased to 11. Two brothers survived the clashes. 11-year-old Khalid, the eldest of the brothers, said he heard his mother crying and his father praying before he died.
After the gunfire stopped, Israeli border police pulled him from the rubble, taunted him that his family had been killed, and attacked him. “We killed the dogs,” one Israeli told Reuters.
The family had gone to the nearby city of Nablus to buy clothes for the upcoming holiday that marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. In a month when adults fast during the daylight hours, families often stay up late.
Mansur Abu Islam, Ali’s neighbor and cousin, said, “What did this family do? They went to buy Eid needs and make the children smile.” “This is clear evidence that Palestinian lives have no value.”
Abu Islam said the gunmen were a secret unit who were not in uniform and were driving a car with Palestinian license plates.
Israeli forces opened fire without warning, Khalid said in an interview from the hospital. After the shooting, an Israeli asked him who was in the car. “I said, ‘My father, my mother, my three siblings and me.’ He said, ‘You’re lying,’ and then they started beating and kicking me.”
The Palestinian Health Ministry said all four victims were shot in the head and face, while Ali, who was driving the car, was shot in the chest and left hand.
Their grandmother, Najah al-Subhi, told the Associated Press that the two surviving children suffered shrapnel wounds in their eyes and heads.
In the statement made by the Palestinian Red Crescent, it was stated that Israeli forces initially prevented ambulances from reaching the scene. According to eyewitness accounts and video shared on social media, the army then towed the family car away.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said the killings were a “shocking act of extrajudicial killing” by Israeli forces that focused global attention on the war with Iran.
“Such crimes, as well as the increasing violence committed by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, are not isolated incidents, but are part of a broader and systematic campaign aimed at the destruction and forced displacement of the Palestinian people,” the ministry said in a statement. he said.
An Israeli police spokesman said the Bani Odeh family was killed during a joint operation with the Israeli army. The statement said that after the vehicle accelerated, forces “perceiving an immediate threat” opened fire on the vehicle.
Police and the military declined to comment when asked what threat the four young children and their unarmed parents posed or whether the attack violated Israel’s rules of engagement.
The statement stated that police and military were in the area to “arrest wanted suspects believed to be involved in terrorist activities.” “The circumstances of the incident are being investigated by the relevant authorities.” No arrests were reported Sunday.
The Israeli army has command responsibility for all forces operating in occupied Palestine. A spokesman said border police killed the Bani Odeh family and declined to comment further, referring all questions to police.
Israeli air strikes on central Gaza on Sunday killed 12 people, medics and the interior ministry said. In Nuseyrat, a pregnant woman was bombed along with her husband and son, and in another attack, a senior police officer and eight members of his team were shot at the entrance to the town of Zawayda, AP reported.
