Israeli forces shoot and kill 4 members of Palestinian family, officials say, after opening fire on car in West Bank

By Ibrahim Dahman, Abeer Salman, Zeena Saifi, CNN

(CNN) — Four members of the same Palestinian family, including two boys aged 5 and 7, who were out on a late-night drive after breaking the daily Ramadan fast, have been shot dead by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank, Palestinian officials reported.

Israel’s military said the soldiers opened fire because they felt threatened by the movement of the family’s car. It is the latest in a rising number of fatal incidents in the occupied Palestinian territory, in which Palestinians have been killed either by Israeli soldiers or Israeli settlers.

Ali Bani Odeh, aged 37, and his 35-year-old wife, Wa’ed Bani Odeh, had taken their four young sons out in the car and were driving back home from the city of Nablus, according to one of the two boys who survived, 11-year-old Khaled Bani Odeh, when they came under fire.

“Suddenly there were direct gunshots towards us. We didn’t know where from,” Khaled told a Palestinian journalist who interviewed him in hospital and subsequently shared the interview with CNN.

“My father was saying the shahada (the Islamic declaration of faith, which Muslims cite when facing death) and raised his finger. My mother was screaming and then went silent.”

Footage from the aftermath of the shooting shows bullets strewn across the road and what appear to be blood stains as well.

“I tried to turn over my brother Mohammed, but I was unable,” Khaled said, adding, “there is no one left other than me and my brother Mustafa.”

Along with 5-year-old, Mohammed, 7-year-old Othman was also killed in the shooting.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told CNN that the “circumstances of the incident are being investigated by the relevant authorities.”

“A vehicle accelerated toward the forces. The forces felt threatened and responded by opening fire,” the military said in a statement. “As a result, four Palestinians who were in the vehicle were killed.” Any CCTV footage of the incident that could help determine the car’s true movements is yet to emerge, and the IDF has not provided any video.

One piece of video that has emerged shows the family’s car, with its windshield shattered, being towed away from the scene by an Israeli military vehicle. Palestinian paramedics also say they were prevented from entering the site to offer medical care, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society told CNN. An hour later, health workers at a local hospital received the four slain members of the family.

Israel has significantly escalated military activities in the occupied West Bank since 2023 as the right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pushed to increase Jewish settlements and entrench Israel’s grip on the land. Israeli settlement in the West Bank is considered illegal under international law.

‘Utter disregard for Palestinian lives’

At the same time, Israeli settlers have also ramped up attacks on Palestinians and their properties, while Israeli authorities carry out regular crackdowns on the movement of Palestinians in the territory. The Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem has accused Israel of using the “cover of war with Iran” to accelerate further what it describes as the “ethnic cleansing” of the West Bank.

In a separate attack this weekend, masked Israeli settlers shot dead a 28-year-old Palestinian, Amir Oudeh, as they launched two assaults on the village of Qusra on Saturday afternoon, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health and the activist Sumud Network.

The dead man’s father, Moatassem Oudeh, was shot in the leg, as he tried to rush to his son’s aid, before being beaten in the head by a wooden club and stabbed multiple times in different parts of his body by settlers, Sumud told CNN.

After the fatal shooting, Israeli military forces then raided the village and assaulted its residents, the Sumud activists said, “punishing (the villagers) for being the target of a lynching by an armed militia.”

In response to a question from CNN, the Israeli military acknowledged the attack, saying it “strongly condemns such incidents which harm innocent civilians,” adding that an investigation had been opened by the Israel Police and Israel Security Agency.

The attacks reflect a “pattern of utter disregard for Palestinian lives,” the head of the UN’s human rights office in the occupied Palestinian territories warned on Sunday. “Impunity is driving more killings, more displacement and dispossession, and more suffering for Palestinians across the occupied territory,” Ajith Sunghay said in a statement.

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CNN’s Eugenia Yosef contributed to this report.