Hours before he was killed alongside his wife and kids, Ali Bani Awda had returned to his West Bank home following an extended period in Israel, where he worked to support his family.

After arriving at home on Saturday, Bani Awda’s four children asked him to take them shopping for the upcoming Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the holiday. The family of six piled into their grey sedan and made for Nablus, about a 40-minute drive south from their home in Tammun.

Returning home after midnight, the Bani Awdas were approaching Tammun just as an undercover Border Police force from a special patrol unit was entering the town to carry out an arrest raid.

According to Israeli authorities, soldiers believed the car to be speeding toward them and opened fire. Within moments, Bani Awda, 37, his wife, Wa’ad, 35, and two children Mohammed, 5, and Othman, 7, were dead of gunshots to the head.

Two other children who were in the car, Mustafa, 8, and Khaled, 11, were left with light wounds and lifelong scars.

“These children who remained alive — what will they become,” asked Diab Mahamid, Ali Bani Awda’s uncle, speaking by phone from the mourning tent in Tammun. “When you kill their father and mother in front of their eyes and beat them?”

. استشهاد 4 أفراد من عائلة واحدة برصاص قوات الاحتلال بعد إصابتهم بالرأس في بلدة طمون جنوب طوباس– علي خالد صايل بني عودة ٣٧ سنة– وعد عثمان عقل بني عودة ٣٥ سنة– محمد علي خالد بني عودة ٥ سنوات– عثمان علي خالد بني عودة ٦ سنواتكانو رايحين يشترو اواعي العيد رجعو بالكفن???????? pic.twitter.com/f8swNsNHDM — فلسطينية والروح سورية (@am_rfyf34923) March 15, 2026

. استشهاد 4 أفراد من عائلة واحدة برصاص قوات الاحتلال بعد إصابتهم بالرأس في بلدة طمون جنوب طوباس– علي خالد صايل بني عودة ٣٧ سنة– وعد عثمان عقل بني عودة ٣٥ سنة– محمد علي خالد بني عودة ٥ سنوات– عثمان علي خالد بني عودة ٦ سنواتكانو رايحين يشترو اواعي العيد رجعو بالكفن???????? pic.twitter.com/f8swNsNHDM

— فلسطينية والروح سورية (@am_rfyf34923) March 15, 2026

The deaths raised the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces just this year to 24, including at least five killed in alleged settler attacks, according to data from B’Tselem and official Palestinian Authority news site WAFA.

While Israel says most of the over 1,000 Palestinians slain by Israeli forces in the West Bank since 2023 have been killed while carrying out attacks, shootings of innocent Palestinians remain tragically common, with the Bani Awdas’ deaths underscoring the dangers faced by those in the West Bank in even seemingly mundane encounters with Israelis.

Family and neighbors say they are struggling to comprehend the tragedy, and Israeli authorities vowed to investigate the deadly shooting. But experts say past experiences with other cases of Palestinians being wrongfully shot and killed by Israeli forces leave little hope for any serious accountability.

“They killed children,” Mahamid said. “Israeli media initially reported that four terrorists were........

© The Times of Israel