Distraught Palestinains mourned over the bodies of four members of a family, including two children, who the Palestinian health ministry said were shot dead on Sunday by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military and police said troops had opened fire on a vehicle over a perceived safety threat, killing four people inside.
"Four martyrs from one family arrived at the Turkish Public Hospital in Tubas after the occupation army shot at them in Tammun," the Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry said. It said the hospital 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.
In Tammun on Sunday, AFP photos showed dozens of family members gathering to mourn the dead. Women wept over their loved ones wrapped in Palestinian flags and kuffiyeh scarves, as one man lifted a child's body above the crowd. "My mother screamed one last time and then fell silent, while my father recited the Shahada (Islamic declaration of faith) before he died," said Khaled Ali Bani Odeh, one of two children who survived.
"They pulled me out (of the car) 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. "I told them it was my father and mother. They said I was lying and started beating me," the 11-year-old told journalists in the presence of relatives at the funeral of his parents and two siblings.
The official Palestinian news agency said the family was shot late on 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 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.
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 US attacked Iran on Feb. 28, Israeli authorities have restricted movement across the 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 that the military said were militant strongholds. Israeli forces still maintain a presence there.
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.
Agencies