My Mother’s Final Cry: 12-Year-Old Palestinian Recounts Family’s Tragedy in Car Attack

In the quiet aftermath of the shootings, before being pulled from his family’s car, 12-year-old Khaled Bani Odeh believed he was the sole survivor of his family. Just moments earlier, his parents and two younger brothers had been shot through the windshield by Israeli forces as they drove home from a shopping trip in the occupied West Bank.

Among the victims was six-year-old Othman, who was blind and disabled, killed while sitting on his mother’s lap. “My mother cried out one last time before going quiet,” Khaled recounted. “My father recited the Shahada [the Islamic declaration of faith] as he died.”

When Israeli forces attempted to pull Khaled’s only surviving brother, Mustafa, from the car, Khaled tried to intervene. “They pulled me out instead and began jumping on my back,” he said. “Then they took me to a corner and questioned me about who had been in the car. I told them it was my mother and father. They accused me of lying and started beating me.”

The family of 37-year-old Ali Khaled Bani Odeh and his 35-year-old wife Waad had been just minutes away from their home when they were killed in the village of Tammun, near Tubas, shortly after midnight on Saturday. Relatives mentioned that Ali had recently returned to Tammun after six weeks working on a construction site in Israel, and the boys had pleaded with him to take them shopping in Nablus ahead of the upcoming Eid al-Fitr holiday.

On that night, as they were returning from shopping and dinner in Nablus, the Israeli army stated that its soldiers and Border Police were conducting operations in Tammun to arrest individuals suspected of terrorist activities against Israeli security forces. According to the military, the Bani Odeh family’s car “accelerated towards the forces, who sensed danger and responded by shooting.”

However, a nearby resident, who lives above the road, shared a different account. He claimed to have seen the incident from his window after hearing sporadic gunfire in the distance. We are not naming him for his safety. He described the family car as having just turned left onto his street, heading uphill, and coming to a complete stop before any shots were fired, contradicting the Israeli army’s narrative.

We asked if he had heard any warnings or warning shots from the Israeli forces. “No, nothing,” he replied. “The firing directly targeted the car. I just heard the woman in the car screaming. The little kids were crying before they were killed.”

A report from the New York Times noted that Waad had asked her husband to pull over so she could search for something in her bag. The Israeli army confirmed that the incident is under investigation by the relevant authorities. When we requested their response to reports that the car had been stationary and fired upon without warning, we were advised to direct our inquiry to the police, and we are still awaiting their response.

At the family home, Khaled’s grandmother, Najah Bani Odeh, sat surrounded by mourners wearing tightly wrapped woolen shawls and headscarves in black, white, and brown. Beside her, occasionally comforted by the women, stood eight-year-old Mustafa, whose expression appeared fragile like glass. His grandmother pointed to the bandage across his face.

“It’s shrapnel—glass from the car window when they fired,” she explained. “He needs an operation to remove it.” She added that the family had not been aware of any military operation in the village as they drove home. “They were driving by the school area where the special forces were hiding. The kids were singing and having fun. Mohammed, who was in kindergarten, was sitting between his mum and dad when they were shot.”

She described how Mohammed fell into Mustafa’s lap when the shooting began, covering Mustafa’s clothes with blood.

Hassan Fuqoha, a member of the Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance crew called to the scene, described the situation as completely different from other incidents he had encountered. He noted that both parents and one of the children had suffered severe head injuries. “I saw a lot of bullet casings, everywhere around the car,” he said. “It was very heavy fire, directly at the car—it’s not normal.”

Residents reported finding more than 50 bullet casings from assault rifles used by Israeli armed forces, which they handed over to the authorities. One casing remained visible, trapped under rubble by the roadside, near where bloodstains still marked the ground.

Yair Lapid, leader of the Israeli opposition party Yesh Atid, criticized the government for failing to apologize to the family for the deaths of the children. “A seven-year-old boy with special needs should not die in the wars of adults,” he said.

The use of lethal force against a civilian vehicle carrying four young children has once again drawn attention to how Israel’s well-equipped soldiers respond to Palestinians in the West Bank and what constitutes a threat. Najah Bani Odeh told us that the killing of her son, daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren is part of a pattern of escalating violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, carried out by both Israeli soldiers and settlers. This violence has increased sharply since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel.

“A settler over there goes on a rampage hurting men, women, and children, and we only defend ourselves by hurling stones,” she said. “They want to strip us out of our lands. They are now building walls around the lands they have seized and firing at will at anyone approaching.”

Between October 7, 2023, and March 15, 2026, the UN’s humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, reported that 1,071 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank, including at least 233 children. It also noted that 19 Israeli civilians and 23 Israeli security forces were killed there from October 2023 until mid-October 2025.