Ramallah, October 5, 2024—An Israeli fighter jet fired three missiles, struck and killed three Palestinian children on October 3 in Tulkarem refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank.
5-year-old Karam Mohammad Salah Abu Zahra, 8-year-old Sham Mohammad Salah Abu Zahra and 16-year-old Mohammad Ma’mon Mohammad Anbas were struck by Israeli fighter jet missiles around 10:20 p.m. on October 3 in Al-Hamam neighborhood, center of Tulkarem refugee camp, east of Tulkarem city in the northern occupied West Bank, according to documentation collected by DCIP.
Karam Mohammad Salah Abu Zahra, 5, and Sham Mohammad Salah Abu Zahra, 8, were in their apartment with their parents, Mohammad and Saja, located on the first floor of a three-story residential building next to a coffee shop. An Israeli warplane launched three missiles at the building, penetrating the roof of the building vertically, passing through the third and second floors, reaching the first floor of the building.
After about an hour of searching, they reached Mohammad Salah Abu Zahra’s apartment, where they found the mangled bodies of him, his wife, son, and daughter. Karam and Sham, along with their parents, sustained shrapnel injuries and severe burns all over their bodies. They were transferred by ambulances to Thabet Thabet Governmental Hospital in Tulkarem, where they were pronounced dead on arrival.
“Israeli forces continue showing contempt for Palestinian children’s lives as they carry out aerial attacks in densely populated civilian areas in the largest military incursion into the West Bank in two decades,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP. “Children like Karam, Sham and Mohammad grow up in Palestinian communities where Israeli forces regularly carry out military attacks and incursions with complete impunity and demonstrate again and again that nowhere is safe for Palestinian children.”
Mohammad Ma’mon Mohammad Anbas, 16, was in the coffee shop when the strike happened. His body was completely shattered, and he was retrieved from under the rubble before being transferred to Thabet Thabet Governmental Hospital in Tulkarem, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
According to an eye witness, three successive explosions occurred in Al-Hamam neighborhood, sending smoke and dust into the air. The camp residents, followed by ambulances and Palestinian Civil Defense teams, rushed to the scene. With the help of residents, the Civil Defense initially evacuated the fragmented bodies of those killed from the first and second floors.
The search for fatalities from under the rubble continued the next day until about 4:00 a.m., with the final death toll reaching 18 Palestinian, including three children. According to a statement from Israeli forces, the airstrike aimed to target and eliminate militants who were inside the coffee shop on the first floor within the building that was targeted.
Eyewitnesses reported that the bombing happened suddenly, without any prior warning, in a busy area filled with Palestinian citizens, disproportionately affecting the evening crowd when many young men from the camp gathered in the coffee shop.
Israeli forces and settlers have killed 83 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank in 2024, including two United States citizens, according to documentation collected by DCIP.
164 Palestinian children have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7, according to documentation collected by DCIP, when the Israeli military began a full-scale military offensive on the Gaza Strip.
In 2023, Israeli forces and settlers killed at least 121 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank, according to documentation collected by DCIP. Israeli forces and settlers shot and killed 103 Palestinian children with live ammunition, 13 Palestinian children were killed in drone strikes, four Palestinian children were killed by missiles fired from a U.S.-sourced Apache attack helicopter, and one child was killed in an Israeli warplane airstrike.
Under international law, intentional lethal force is only justified in circumstances where a direct threat to life or of serious injury is present. However, investigations and evidence collected by DCIP regularly suggest that Israeli forces use lethal force against Palestinian children in circumstances that may amount to extrajudicial or wilful killings.
