Israeli soldiers shot dead four people, including two children, in the northern occupied West Bank on Sunday after they opened fire on a car carrying a family of six, the Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry said.
The Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service said Ali and Waed Odeh, and two of their four children, were shot in the head. The Odehs’ two surviving children had shrapnel wounds that were examined by first responders once they were allowed access, the group said, accusing Israel of delaying sending ambulances to the scene.
Israel’s military and police said in a joint statement on Sunday that forces opened fire after a car sped toward them in Tammun. They said forces were pursuing suspects accused of “terrorist activity” and that the shooting was under investigation.
Najah al-Subhi, who lost her son and grandchildren, told the Associated Press that the family had gone to a shopping center in Nablus to buy clothes for Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan this week.
He said the two surviving children suffered shrapnel wounds to the eye and head.
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Speaking to Reuters at the hospital, 12-year-old Khaled, one of the two surviving children, said he heard his mother crying and his father praying before gunshots hit the car.
“We were attacked directly, we didn’t know the source. Everyone in the car was martyred, except my brother Mustafa and me,” the boy said.
He said the soldiers pulled him out of the vehicle before beating him.
“We killed dogs,” Khaled said they cried.
Sameer Basharat, mayor of Tammun, said he learned what happened to the Odeh family in the middle of the night, noting that their car was shot at in the city center, where the Israeli army maintains a daily military presence.
The city is one of several where Israel has remained for more than a year after launching an offensive in parts of the northern West Bank last year as part of what the military says is an effort to confront militants.
Beyond the shooting, Basharat said that over the past year residents have been evicted by the military and denied access to the city’s farmland, while Israel has been confiscating land in preparation for the planned construction of a new fence that would divide the Jordan Valley.
Tammun has also faced frequent Israeli raids and road closures, affecting the lives and livelihoods of the city’s people who on Sunday “are experiencing deep pain over what happened to the family,” Basharat said.
Israeli human rights group B’tselem said the Odeh family’s car was riddled with bullets and that Israeli forces had “violently interrogated” one of the surviving children who was injured.
“There is no effective mechanism to hold those responsible accountable,” the group said.
Israeli soldiers accused of wounding or killing Palestinians are rarely penalized and were charged in less than 1 percent of cases based on 2,427 complaints alleging wrongdoing between 2016 and 2024, according to the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din.
Members of the Odeh family were the latest victims in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli settlers and soldiers had shot dead at least eight Palestinians since the start of the US-Israel war against Iran.
Since Israel and the United States attacked Iran on February 28, Israeli authorities have restricted movement in the occupied West Bank, intermittently closing hundreds of gates and checkpoints on roads used by residents, ambulances and commercial traffic. The barriers have restricted movement and significantly hampered emergency response, the Red Crescent told the AP last week.
Yesh Din said Wednesday it had documented 109 incidents of settler violence in the occupied West Bank in dozens of Palestinian communities since the start of the war.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has recorded 18 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of 2026, including eight at the hands of Israeli settlers.
(FRANCE 24 with AP and Reuters)
