RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israeli 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.
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. Israel said it was investigating the shooting.
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 said in a joint statement Sunday that forces opened fire after a car accelerated toward them in Tammun. They said the forces were pursuing suspects accused of "terrorist activity" and that the shooting was under investigation.
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 Iran war.
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 that the military said were militant strongholds. Israeli forces still maintain a presence there.
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.
Copyright 2026 NPR