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DISTRAUGHT PALESTINIANS MOURNED over the bodies of four members of a family, including two children, who the Palestinian health ministry said were shot dead yesterday by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.
Ali Khaled Bani Odeh, 37, his wife Waad Othman Bani Odeh, 35, and their two children, 5-year-old Mohammad and 7-year-old Othman were killed by Israeli occupation forces during a raid on the town of Tammun, south of Tubas, in the northern West Bank.
Khaled Ali Bani Odeh, one of two children who survived, recounted the attack yesterday, outlining that the family was travelling in their car when they came under fire.
“They pulled me out and started jumping on my back. Then they took me to a corner and asked me what happened and who was with me in the car,” the 11-year-old told journalists in the presence of relatives at the funeral of his parents and two siblings.
“I told them it was my father and mother. They said I was lying and started beating me,” the young boy added.
“My mother screamed one last time and then fell silent, while my father recited the Shahada (Islamic declaration of faith) before he died.”
In Tammun yesterday, AFP photos showed dozens of family members gathering to mourn the dead.
The Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry said the Turkish Public Hospital in Tubas received the bodies of a 37-year-old man, his 35-year-old wife and two boys aged five and seven, adding that all had gunshot wounds.
“Four martyrs from one family arrived at the Turkish Public Hospital in Tubas after the occupation army shot at them in Tammun,” the ministry said.
Women wept over their loved ones wrapped in Palestinian flags and kuffiyeh scarves, as one man lifted a child’s body above the crowd.
The Israeli military did not offer an immediate response to his allegations, but confirmed the deaths.
It later said troops had opened fire on a vehicle over a perceived safety threat, killing four people inside.
The military and police said in a joint statement that during an operation in Tammun, “a vehicle accelerated toward the forces, who perceived an immediate threat to their safety and responded with gunfire”.
“As a result, four Palestinians who were in the vehicle were killed,” it said, adding that the incident was under review.
In a statement posted on X, the Palestinian foreign ministry strongly condemned the killings, which it said were “not isolated” incidents, but “part of a comprehensive and systematic aggression” towards the Palestinians by Israel.
The Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that the couple’s two other children, aged eight and 11, were wounded by shrapnel after Israeli forces opened fire on their vehicle early on Sunday morning.
There has also been a spike in deadly attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank since the start of the Iran war, Palestinian authorities and the United Nations have said, with at least six Palestinians killed since the start of March.
According to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry figures, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 1,045 Palestinians – many of them militants, but also scores of civilians — in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war.
Official Israeli figures say that 45 Israelis, including both soldiers and civilians, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations.
In addition to roughly three million Palestinians, more than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements and outposts in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law.
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