Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian couple and their two young children in the town of Tammun in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials said Saturday, as violence flared across the territory and in Gaza.
The Palestinian health ministry said four members of one family — a 37-year-old man, a 35-year-old woman and two boys ages 5 and 7 — arrived at the Turkish Public Hospital in Tubas with gunshot wounds after troops opened fire on their vehicle. The Palestinian Red Crescent said its teams recovered the bodies of two adults and two children from a car that had been shot at by Israeli forces in Tammun.
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At the hospital, Khaled, one of two surviving boys from the car, said he heard his mother crying and his father praying as bullets struck the vehicle. “We came under direct fire; we didn’t know the source. Everyone in the car was martyred, except my brother Mustafa and me,” he said, adding that soldiers pulled him from the vehicle and beat him. He said the soldiers shouted, “We killed dogs.” The account could not be independently verified.
The Israeli military said in a statement that forces carried out an operation in Tammun to arrest Palestinians wanted for involvement in “terrorist” activity against security forces. It provided no further details.
The Palestinian health ministry said one Palestinian was also killed overnight in an attack by Israeli settlers. Palestinian authorities and the United Nations have reported a spike in deadly settler attacks in recent days, with at least five Palestinians killed in the West Bank since the start of March.
In Gaza, hospital officials said at least four people, including a boy and his pregnant mother, were killed early Saturday when an Israeli airstrike hit a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said a couple and their young son were among the dead; the fourth fatality was taken to Awda Hospital. The boy’s younger brother was wounded, hospital staff said.
“We were sleeping and got up to the strike of a missile,” said neighbor Mahmoud al-Muhtaseb. “The strike was strong. There was no prior warning.” There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Separately, the Al-Aqsa hospital said it received the bodies of eight people killed when an Israeli strike hit a police vehicle in the town of Zawaida in central Gaza. Gaza’s Hamas-run interior ministry confirmed the toll and said those killed were policemen, including the head of police in the central governorate, Col. Iyad Abu Yousef.
Israel’s military has conducted near-daily raids across the West Bank since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack that triggered the Gaza war. In November, it launched an operation targeting Palestinian armed groups in the northern West Bank, including areas around Tubas.
According to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry figures, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 1,045 Palestinians — many of them militants, but also scores of civilians — in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war. Official Israeli figures say 45 Israelis, including soldiers and civilians, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations.
More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live among roughly 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank. Most countries consider the settlements illegal under international law.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
