Listen to this article
Average 4 minutes
The audio version of this article was created by AI-based technology. It can be mispronounced. We are working with our partners to continuously review and improve the results.
Israeli soldiers opened fire on a car carrying a family in the northern West Bank, killing four people, including two children, the Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry said.
Rescuers from the Palestine Red Crescent said Ali and Waed Odeh, along with two of their four children, were shot in the head. Two of the Odehs’ surviving children had gunshot wounds that were examined by first responders when they were allowed in, the group said, accusing Israel of delaying ambulances sent to the scene.
The Israeli army and police said in a joint statement on Sunday that the soldiers opened fire after a car drove towards them in Tammun. They said the soldiers were after the suspects suspected of “terrorist activities” and the shooting was being investigated.
Najah al-Subhi, who lost his son and grandchildren, told The Associated Press that the family had gone to a mall 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 children who survived received gunshot wounds to the eye and head.
Sameer Basharat, the mayor of Tammun, said he heard about what happened to the Odeh family in the middle of the night, noting that their car was shot in the center of the city, where Israeli soldiers live every day.
The town is one of the few Israelis have occupied for more than a year after raids in northern parts of the West Bank last year as part of efforts to deal with the militants.
In addition to this shooting, Basharat said that in the past year, residents have been chased away by the army and denied access to farms in the city, while Israel has been occupying the area in preparation for the construction of a new fence that will divide the Jordan Valley.
In addition, Tammun has faced frequent raids and road closures, which affect the health and well-being of the people of this town who said on Sunday “they are facing great grief for what happened to the family,” said Basharat.
Israeli rights group B’tselem said the Odeh family’s car was riddled with bullets and that Israeli forces “violently investigated” one of the surviving children who was injured.
“There is no effective way to arrest those responsible,” said the group.
Israel has approved a new effort to register land in the occupied West Bank, requiring Palestinians to show proof of ownership of the land. It’s a move critics call ‘de facto annexation.’
The military is rarely punished: a group of rights
Israeli soldiers accused of harming Palestinians are rarely punished and charged in less than 1 percent of cases based on 2,427 2016 complaints against them between 2016 and 2024, according to Israeli rights group Yesh Din.
Members of the Odeh family were the latest victims in the West Bank, where Israeli settlers and soldiers have shot and killed at least eight Palestinians since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran.
Since Israel and the US attacked Iran on Feb. 28, Israeli authorities have restricted travel across the West Bank, periodically closing hundreds of gates and checkpoints on roads used by civilians, ambulances and commercial traffic. The obstacles have stifled movement and made emergency response more difficult, the Red Crescent told the Associated Press last week.
Yesh Din said on Wednesday that they have documented 109 incidents of violence against residents of the West Bank in many Palestinian communities since the start of the war.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs recorded 18 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of 2026, including eight who arrived in Israel.
