'We killed dogs': Israeli forces kill Palestinian family of four, including two children, in West Bank’s Tammun
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "'We killed dogs': Israeli forces kill Palestinian family of four, including two children, in West Bank’s Tammun")
Mustafa, who was injured but survived after Israeli soldiers fired on the vehicle carrying his parents and two siblings Photograph: (AFP)
Israeli forces shot dead four Palestinians, including two children, in the West Bank village of Tammun. Survivors say the family was returning home after Eid, while the Israeli military claims the vehicle posed a threat.
Israeli forces on Sunday shot and killed four people in a car while they were returning home. The four people killed had two children and their parents, 37-year-old Ali Khaled Bani Odeh and his 35-year-old wife Waad. The two children killed are 7-year-old Mohammad and 5-year-old Othman in the village of Tammun. All of them were shot in the head, as two others were injured in the shrapnel from the attack, according to the Palestinian health authorities.
“We came under direct fire; we didn’t know the source. Everyone in the car was martyred, except my brother Mustafa and me,” said 12-year-old Khaled, one of the two who survived the attack. He said that when soldiers pulled him out of the car and beat him while shouting, “We killed dogs.”
The Israeli military said it was carrying out an operation in Tammun to arrest Palestinians who were wanted for involvement in “terrorist activity”. According to the statement, during the operation, they accelerated the vehicle towards them, and they shot in self-defence. "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.”
The two accounts were contradictory. According to the surviving boys, 8-year-old Mustafa and 12-year-old Khaled, the family went for Eid al-Fitr while returning, their mother was asking their father for help with the 5-year-old Othman, when they saw lasers being pointed at them from all directions as their mother screamed and their father said: “god is great”. Khaled could see parts of his brother on his shoe, reported the NYT. The injured children were grabbed by their hair, thrown to the ground, beaten, stepped on and aggressively asked by Israeli military if anyone else had survived the attack.
The Israeli military maintains de facto control over the West Bank, and taking advantage of the ongoing US-Israel war on Iran, they have imposed restrictions and curbed movements even for medical emergencies like ambulances. At least 5 people have been killed since the beginning of the war on February 28. The Israeli police, who investigate the settler violence, have largely failed to bring any justice against the aggressors.
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