Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian Family Of Four In Tammun South Of Tubas

Israeli forces killed four members of a Palestinian family in the town of Tammun, south of Tubas, in the northern occupied West Bank in the early hours of Sunday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.

The UN News report said the Human Rights Office identified the victims as father Ali Khaled Odeh (37), mother Waad Othman Odeh (35), and their two younger children Muhammad (5) and Othman (6), with the two older children aged 8 and 11 surviving and later giving media statements.

Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera reported that Palestinians gathered in the occupied West Bank to bury Odeh Awawdeh, a 25-year-old father shot dead by Israeli settlers while helping shepherds under attack near Ramallah, and noted that his two-month-old twin daughters were brought to his funeral.

In Tammun, France 24 said the Palestinian Health Ministry reported that a Palestinian man (37), his wife (35), and their two young children (ages five and seven) were killed by Israeli army gunfire, and that all of them were shot.

The Israeli army and police told France 24 the incident occurred during a joint operation carried out by Border Police and Israeli soldiers trying to arrest individuals suspected of involvement in terrorist activities against security forces.

The Palestinian Health Ministry also said the family members were shot in the head and chest, while the father was also hit in the thigh and arm, according to UN News.

The UN News report further said that the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank rises to 1,071 since 7 October 2023, including 233 children.

Multiple outlets described the Tammun incident in ways that hinge on the Israeli account of a vehicle approaching forces and the Palestinian account of killings of an entire family.

France 24 reported that the Israeli army and police said the incident occurred during a joint operation carried out by Border Police and Israeli soldiers who were trying to arrest individuals suspected of involvement in terrorist activities against security forces.

France 24

In the Al-Sharq Al-Awsat report, an Israeli army and police joint statement said, "During a field operation by security forces in the town of Tammun, to arrest wanted persons, a vehicle attempted to approach the forces, which constituted a threat; the forces responded with gunfire."

The same report said the Palestinian Foreign Ministry described the incident as "a brutal and horrific massacre, not an isolated incident, but part of a broad and methodical aggression aimed at erasing the Palestinian people and driving them from their land."

UN News said the Human Rights Office reported that Israeli security forces opened fire on a car in Tammun, and it added that the two older children survived and later gave media statements saying Israeli soldiers assaulted them after killing their parents and siblings, telling them: 'We killed you, dogs.'

The Al-Mashhad report said the Israeli army was "investigating reports related to the incident that led to the family's deaths."

The Al Jazeera and Al-Quds Al-Arabi accounts also described the Palestinian narrative of special units raiding Tammun and preventing medics from reaching the vehicle, with Quds Al-Arabi saying the army prevented residents and medics from reaching the vehicle’s location.

The UN Secretary-General condemned the killing of members of a Palestinian family, including children, and urged Israel to uphold obligations under international law while exercising restraint.

“The United Nations Secretary-General condemned the killing of members of a Palestinian family, including children, by Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank”

UN News

UN News quoted spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric saying the Secretary-General called on Israel to "uphold its obligations under international law" and stressed "the need for security forces to exercise maximum restraint and to use lethal force only as a last resort to protect lives."

Dujarric also said the near-daily attacks by Israeli settlers have become more severe and brutal, resulting in deaths, injuries and extensive damage to property, and in some cases the displacement of entire communities, and he said this violence is unacceptable and must stop.

UN News also reported that the UN Human Rights Office condemned the killing of two Palestinian families by Israeli fire in Gaza and the West Bank on 15 March, saying these incidents raise serious concerns about the ongoing pattern of unlawful killings of Palestinians without accountability.

In the Tammun case, UN News said the two older children survived and later gave media statements saying Israeli soldiers assaulted them after killing their parents and siblings, telling them: 'We killed you, dogs.'

Palestinian political responses were also explicit in the Arabic-language coverage: Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported that the Palestinian Foreign Ministry described the killing as an "extrajudicial killing" and part of an aggression aimed at 'genocide and displacement of the Palestinian people, in exploitation of the regional escalation.'

It also said Hamas described the killing of an entire Palestinian family in the West Bank as a 'new war crime' and called for 'escalating the confrontation with the occupation.'

The UN News report tied the West Bank killings to a broader pattern of violence across Gaza and the West Bank, while also providing specific figures about casualties and humanitarian conditions.

It said the UN Human Rights Office condemned the killing of two Palestinian families by Israeli fire in Gaza and the West Bank on 15 March, and it referenced an Israeli airstrike in al-Suwala area of al-Zawaida, in central Gaza, killing a man, his wife who was pregnant with twins, and their 10-year-old child, as well as a 15-year-old boy in a nearby refugee tent.

Al-Jazeera Net

UN News also reported that on the same day there were reports of an Israeli drone attack on a car leading to the death of eight Palestinian police officers.

The UN Office said that 663 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military operations since the announcement of the ceasefire in October, whether far from or near the redeployment line known as the 'Yellow Line' or near it, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

It further said that with this, the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank rises to 1,071 since 7 October 2023, including 233 children.

On the humanitarian front, UN News said a strong dust storm swept through the Gaza Strip over the weekend, causing damage to and destruction of dozens of shelters, and that UN partners estimate that housing and belongings for more than 600 families were affected.

It also said the World Food Programme and UN partners warned that more than half of Gaza's families burn waste to cook food, with severely negative consequences in crowded areas, and that only two of five health centers are currently operating—and often only partially—despite UN efforts to reopen health facilities.

Arabic-language reports described a wider escalation in the West Bank, linking the Tammun killings to settler attacks and to what they described as organized protection by occupation forces.

“11-year-old Khaled Bani 'Awda will not forget the hardest minutes of his life, and perhaps he will spend the rest of his life without understanding why he had to live the rest of his life without a father, a mother, and siblings, simply because Israeli soldiers decided that the speed of the car his family was riding in was not suitable for walking in the streets, so they opened fire on everyone inside and killed his entire family”

Al-Sharq al-Awsat

Al Jazeera Net said five Palestinians were martyred in the occupied West Bank in the past hours, describing a bloody escalation in the northern parts of the West Bank and saying Israeli occupation forces carried out a massacre against an entire family in Tamoun.

Al-Sharq al-Awsat

It stated that at dawn on Sunday, four Palestinians from one family—a father, a mother, and their two children—were killed by gunfire from special units of the Israeli army in Tamoun, south of Tubas, and it said the Palestinian Red Crescent Society retrieved the bodies from inside a vehicle targeted by the occupation with a volley of bullets in the center of the town.

The same report said sources noted that the occupation forces initially prevented ambulance crews from reaching the targeted vehicle, before handing over two other children who were inside the vehicle and were not injured.

It also said a fifth martyr, Amir Moatasem Mahmoud Awda (28), died of his wounds sustained from gunfire by settlers during a violent attack they launched on the town of Qasra, south of Nablus.

Al Jazeera Net added that the Committee Against the Wall and Settlements said settlers carried out more than 192 attacks in the past two weeks, stressing that these crimes are carried out with direct protection from the occupation forces.

In Al-Mashhad, the Palestinian Health Ministry said at least five Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank at the hands of settlers since the Iran-related war began on February 28, while UN News said the Secretary-General again urges the Israeli government to take concrete measures to change this trajectory.