Israeli soldiers fire on family car in occupied West Bank, killing 4 Palestinians

AP , Sunday 15 Mar 2026

Israeli occupation 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.

west bank
Mustafa, who was injured but survived after Israeli soldiers fired on the vehicle carrying his parents and two siblings, is comforted during the funeral of his family in the Israeli-occupied West Bank’s northern town of Tammun on March 15, 2026. AFP

 

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.

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 claimed in a joint statement Sunday that forces opened fire after a car accelerated toward them in Tammun. 

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 US-Israeli war on Iran .

Since Israel and the U.S. 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.

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.

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