Israel continued its genocidal crackdown on Palestinians Sunday, killing at least eight people, including four children and a pregnant woman, in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
The occupying forces killed a Palestinian father, mother, and two of their children as they drove in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health authorities said.
Ali Khaled Bani Odeh, 37, his 35-year-old wife Waad, and two of their children, Mohammad and Othman, aged 5 and 7 respectively, were each shot in the head in the village of Tammun, while two of their other children sustained injuries, according to Palestinian health authorities.
The Israeli military said in a statement that forces had operated in the village of Tammun to arrest Palestinians wanted for alleged attacks against security forces.
"During the operation, a vehicle accelerated toward the forces, who perceived an immediate threat to their safety and responded with gunfire. As a result, four Palestinians who were in the vehicle were killed," the military claimed.
The circumstances of the incident are under review, it said.
Speaking to Reuters at the hospital, Khaled, 12, one of the two surviving boys, said he heard his mother crying, his father praying, but no voice of any of his other brothers before silence prevailed after shots sprayed the car.
"We came under direct fire. We didn't know the source. Everyone in the car was martyred, except my brother Mustafa and me," the boy said.
He said soldiers, who pulled him out of the vehicle before beating him, cried: "We killed dogs."
The Palestinian Health Ministry said one Palestinian was also killed in an attack by Israeli settlers overnight.
Israeli settlers in the West Bank are taking advantage of curbs on movement imposed during the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran to attack Palestinians, with military roadblocks preventing ambulances from reaching victims quickly, rights groups and medics say.
Settlers have killed at least five Palestinians in the West Bank since the Iran war began on Feb. 28, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Gaza deaths
Meanwhile, in Gaza, at least four Palestinians, including two boys and a woman – pregnant with twins – were killed Sunday by an Israeli airstrike in the war-torn Gaza Strip, hospital authorities said.
The strike hit a house in Nuseirat, an urban refugee camp in central Gaza, killing a couple in their 30s and their 10-year son, according to the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
The fourth fatality, a 15-year-old neighbor, was taken to the Awda hospital in Nuseirat. The boy's young brother was wounded in the strike, the hospital said.
"We were sleeping and got up to the strike of a missile. The strike was strong," said Mahmoud al-Muhtaseb, a neighbor. "There was no prior warning."
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
The deaths were the latest fatalities among Palestinians in the coastal enclave since an October cease-fire deal attempted to halt Israel's 2-year genocidal war on Gaza.
While the heaviest fighting has subsided, the cease-fire has still seen almost daily Israeli fire. Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes and frequently fire on Palestinians near military-held zones, killing more than 650 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.
Israel claims it has responded to violations of the cease-fire or targeted wanted resistance members. But about half of those killed have been women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
They were among more than 72,200 Palestinians killed in the war, which was triggered by Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, Israel incursion, which caused 1,200 deaths and took over 250 hostages.
The Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.
Militants have carried out shooting attacks on troops, and Israel says its strikes are in response to that and other violations. Four Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire.