Israeli soldiers shot and killed 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 that 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 granted access, the group said, accusing Israel of delaying ambulances dispatched to the scene.
Israel’s military and police said in a joint statement Sunday that forces opened fire after a car accelerated toward them in Tammun. They said the 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 the family had gone to a mall in Nablus to buy clothes for Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan this week.
She said the two surviving children sustained shrapnel wounds in the eye and the head.
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Speaking to Reuters at the hospital, Khaled, 12, one of the two surviving boys, said he heard his mother crying and his father praying before shots sprayed the car.
"We came under direct fire, we didn't know the source. Everyone in the car was martyred, except my brother Mustafa and me," the boy said.
He said soldiers had pulled him out of the vehicle before beating him.
"We killed dogs," Khaled said they cried.
Sameer Basharat, Tammun's mayor, said he heard about what happened to the Odeh family in the middle of the night, noting that their car was shot in the town's centre, where the Israeli army maintains a daily military presence.
The town is among several that Israel has remained in 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 army and denied access to the town’s farmland, while Israel has been seizing land in preparation for the anticipated construction of a new fence that would divide the Jordan Valley.
Tammun has also faced frequent Israeli raids and road closures, affecting life and livelihoods of people in the town who on Sunday “are experiencing deep sorrow over what happened to the family", Basharat said.
The Israeli rights group B'tselem said the Odeh family's car was riddled with bullets and Israeli forces had “violently interrogated” one of the surviving children who was wounded.
“No effective mechanism exists to hold those responsible to account,” the group said.
Palestinians mourn at the funeral of four members of the Odeh family who were killed in their car by Israeli security forces in Tammun, West Bank, Sunday, March 15, 2026. © Majdi Mohammed, AP
Israeli soldiers accused of wounding or killing Palestinians are rarely penalised and were indicted in fewer than 1 percent of cases based on 2,427 complaints alleging wrongdoing between 2016 and 2024, according to Israeli rights group Yesh Din.
The members of the Odeh family were the latest casualties in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli settlers and soldiers had previously shot and killed at least eight Palestinians since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Since Israel and the US attacked Iran on February 28, Israeli authorities have restricted movement across the occupied West Bank, intermittently closing hundreds of gates and checkpoints on roads used by residents, ambulances and commercial traffic. The barriers have tightened movement and made emergency response significantly more difficult, the Red Crescent told AP last week.
Yesh Din said on Wednesday that 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 start of 2026, including eight by Israeli settlers.
(FRANCE 24 with AP and Reuters)
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