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Israeli troops kill four in West Bank, including 2 children

Israeli soldiers fire on family car in West Bank, killing four people including two children
MENA
2 min read
Israeli forces killed four Palestinians, including two children, after shooting at their car at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank
Palestinians mourned the four victims of the Israeli shooting [Getty]

Israeli soldiers fired on a car carrying a family in the northern West Bank, killing four people including two children, the Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry said.

The official Palestinian news agency said the family was shot late Saturday after going out to buy new clothes for the coming Eid al-Fitr holiday. Israel said it was investigating the shooting.

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 Red Crescent said, adding that Israel had delayed ambulances dispatched to the scene.

Israel’s military and police claimed in a joint statement Sunday that forces opened fire after a car allegedly accelerated towards them in Tammun.

They also claimed the forces were pursuing suspects accused of “terrorist activity” and that the shooting was under investigation.

The members of the Odeh family were the latest casualties in the occupied West Bank, where shootings by Israeli settlers and soldiers had previously killed at least eight Palestinians since the start of the Iran war.

Since Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran on 28 February, 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 The Associated Press last week.

Israeli rights group 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 toll is lower than at this point in 2025 — a record year for violence that began with Israel invading northern West Bank cities, where they still maintain a presence.

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.