IDF and Israeli Settlers Murder Children and Teens
I read the new Btselem report on Israel killing children and teens in the West Bank. The pattern is clear. The IDF and settlers murder them. They are denied care as they die. The perpetrators are not held accountable. These are the worst cases:
1) Rida Bisharat, 8, and Hamza Bisharat, 10. Tammun, January 8, 2025. Playing in a small yard between their family homes when an Israeli aircraft fired a missile that killed them and a third cousin, Adam, 23. The mother reached her son as he lay bleeding from the head and groaning. Soldiers said in Arabic they would give first aid, then made the family back away, covered the three bodies in blankets, and took them without checking them. The military later claimed the three were identified as IED-planters; no IEDs were found. No charges against the perpetrators.
2) Layla al-Khatib, 2. Muthalath a-Shuhada, January 25, 2025. She was sitting in her mother’s lap at the dinner table when soldiers fired into the second-floor apartment, striking the back of her head. Her grandfather carried her bleeding into the street, where an officer said in English, “I’m sorry, she was hit by mistake.” With no ambulance present, the family carried her 100 meters to a civilian car. The army told Haaretz a “wanted terrorist” was barricaded inside and that it summoned medics; B’Tselem found no one was barricaded, no loudspeaker calls were made, and the mother was not pregnant as claimed. The army was investigating, no charges.
3) Hamed Nazzal, 16. Qalqiliyah, February 26, 2025. He was shot while throwing stones at Eyal Checkpoint with other teens, none of which caused any reported injury. After he was hit, the soldiers provided him no medical treatment of any kind. Paramedics were unable to reach him and only recovered his body roughly 15 minutes after the shooting. The delay in access falls within the pattern B’Tselem documents across nearly a quarter of the cases. The case drew an internal military review at most, no charges.
4) Omar Zyud. Silat al-Harithiya, April 2, 2025. He was hit in the back by fire from a machine gun mounted on an armored vehicle while among boys throwing stones and IEDs at the vehicles. The rounds killed him and wounded two other boys. The soldiers left the scene a few minutes later without providing medical treatment to any of the casualties. Israel was among those still withholding bodies in this period. No soldier was charged.
5) Ayman al-Haymuni, 12. Hebron, February 21, 2025. He and his 10-year-old brother had just left their grandfather’s house to walk to their uncle’s next door. After noticing soldiers who had raided the neighborhood, the two boys tried to return to the grandfather’s house, and as Ayman turned back he was shot in the back and fell. B’Tselem’s investigation found no clash underway that would account for the fire. The case produced no indictment.
7) Rimas Amuri, 13. Jenin, February 21, 2025. She had asked her mother for permission to visit her cousins next door. No clashes were taking place in the neighborhood, and traffic was moving normally. She was shot just as she turned onto the path to her uncle’s house. The army described her to Haaretz as a “suspicious figure” who ignored warnings; B’Tselem found she was shot in the back, with no warning heard by witnesses. No charges followed.
8) Malek Hattab, 17. al-Jalazun Refugee Camp, April 14, 2025. He was shot in the abdomen from a second-floor balcony as a group of youths fled from two military jeeps. B’Tselem could not establish that Hattab took part in any clash. A woman who lived nearby tried to reach him to help but was driven back into her home by soldiers’ fire, an obstruction of care of the kind documented across the report. No soldier was charged.
In 13 of the 54 cases, nearly a quarter, the military delayed or entirely blocked medics or residents from reaching the wounded, and in at least nine cases soldiers fired in the air or at rescuers to keep them away. And as of mid-April 2026, Israel was still holding 18 of the 54 bodies, denying the families burial. In none of the cases was anyone prosecuted for killing these children. That says it all.
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