Israeli soldiers kill 4 in West Bank after fire on family car

Summary

Israeli soldiers fired on a car carrying a family in the town of Tammun in the northern occupied West Bank, killing four people including two children, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry. Palestinian Red Crescent rescue workers said the shooting left two of the children and two adults dead, and they said the injured children were examined by first responders after they were granted access to the scene.

Israel’s military and police said in a joint statement that forces opened fire after a car accelerated toward them in Tammun. The statement said forces were pursuing suspects accused of “terrorist activity,” and it said the incident is under investigation.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said in its account that Ali and Waed Odeh and two of their four children were shot in the head. The rescue service also said two surviving children had shrapnel wounds and described difficulties reaching the injured after dispatching ambulances to the site, accusing Israeli forces of delaying access.

Najah al-Subhi, whose son and grandchildren were killed, told The Associated Press that the family had gone to a mall in Nablus to buy clothes for Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan this week. Sameer Basharat, the mayor of Tammun, said he learned of the incident in the middle of the night and noted that the car was shot in the town’s center, where Israeli forces maintain a daily presence.

Basharat said Tammun has remained under Israeli military control for more than a year since Israel launched an offensive in parts of the northern West Bank last year to confront militants. He said residents have been evicted by the army and denied access to the town’s farmland, and he cited ongoing preparations for a new fence intended to divide the Jordan Valley.

Basharat also said the town has faced frequent raids and road closures, adding that people in Tammun were experiencing “deep sorrow over what happened to the family” as of Sunday. The rights group B’ tselem said the Odeh family’s car was riddled with bullets and said Israeli forces “violently interrogated” one of the surviving children who was wounded, adding that it saw no “effective mechanism” to hold those responsible to account.

The AP report also cited Yesh Din, an Israeli rights group, saying Israeli soldiers accused of harming Palestinians are rarely penalized and that Israeli authorities indicted suspects in fewer than 1% of cases based on 2,427 complaints alleging wrongdoing between 2016 and 2024. The Odeh family’s deaths were among the latest casualties reported in the occupied West Bank, where the AP said at least eight Palestinians had been shot and killed by Israeli settlers and soldiers since the start of the Iran war.

Israel’s operations have included restrictions on movement across the West Bank since Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran on Feb. 28, including intermittently closing hundreds of gates and checkpoints on roads used by residents, ambulances and commercial traffic. The report said the barriers have tightened movement and made emergency response significantly more difficult, citing the Red Crescent’s account from the prior week, and it said Yesh Din documented 109 incidents of settler violence in dozens of 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 start of 2026, including eight killed by Israeli settlers. Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank.