Tubas, March 15, 2026 (WAFA) – Israa Ghorani
Father Ali Bani Odeh, from the town of Tamoun, southeast of Tubas, wanted to make up for his long absence from his family, after circumstances forced him to stay at work for two consecutive months and be completely absent from home during them. So he returned to his home a few days before the holiday, wanting to create an atmosphere of joy for his children .
Ali (37 years old) took his wife Waad (35 years old) and his four children Khaled, Mustafa, Othman and Muhammad, and they went in their vehicle after breakfast to the city of Nablus to spend some time and buy clothes for Eid, but special forces from the occupation army had infiltrated the town at the same time as the family’s return and showered their vehicle with a barrage of bullets, which led to the martyrdom of the father, mother and their two children Othman and Muhammad, while the two children Khaled and Mustafa survived from death .
The eldest child, Khaled (11 years old), recounts the horrific details of what happened to the family, and how their joy turned into mourning in the blink of an eye .
Khaled says that an atmosphere of joy prevailed among the family on their way back to the town at midnight, as the father was singing songs with his children who were happy about their recreational trip after breakfast .
He said that on their way back home, while the vehicle was driving through the town, they were subjected to a heavy barrage of bullets. The father and mother were killed along with their two youngest children, Othman (7 years old), who was blind, and Muhammad (5 years old), while he and his brother Mustafa (8 years old) were injured by shrapnel in the face .
Khaled adds: “When the bullets were fired at us, my mother screamed once, then her voice suddenly went silent, and I heard my father recite the Shahada, and then his voice also disappeared .”
The child continued, while holding the edge of his face and eye from the shrapnel wounds he sustained: “Then a soldier came and took me out of the vehicle and kicked me in the back with his feet, then he tried to hit my brother Mustafa, but I stood in front of my brother to protect him. Mustafa and I survived, while my father, mother, and my two brothers, Othman and Muhammad, were martyred .”
In the account of the ambulance crews regarding the massacre of the family, the director of ambulance and emergency services in Tubas, Nidal Awda, told Wafa that they received a report about the incident when it occurred, so the ambulance crews immediately went to the site, and there the occupation forces prevented them from reaching the vehicle .
He added: There were three ambulances trying to reach them from several directions, and after about 20 minutes of trying, the occupation forces handed over the two injured children, Khaled and Mustafa, to the ambulance crews, while preventing them from reaching the rest of the family members, whose fate was unknown at the time .
About half an hour later, the crews were allowed to reach the vehicle, according to Awda. The paramedics recounted horrific details of the moment when they found the parents and two children dead. The father’s head had been shattered by bullets, as had his son Othman, while the youngest child, Muhammad, was a martyr in his mother’s arms. The crews retrieved the bodies and transported them to the Turkish Governmental Hospital in Tubas, while the occupation forces seized the family’s vehicle.
This morning, a large crowd attended the funeral procession for the four martyrs, in an angry march that toured the town’s streets.
After bidding farewell to the bodies of the martyrs Ali, his wife and his two children in the courtyard of his family’s home, Ali’s mother tried to compose herself and sat in the front of her house where the mourning tent for women was set up, and she began to talk about the last moments in the lives of her son, his wife and his two sons .
She said: “Ali missed his children. He arrived home yesterday after being away for two consecutive months at work, and he wanted to make up for his absence by taking them to the city of Nablus to buy Eid clothes and entertain them .”
The grieving mother continued: “After midnight we heard about a vehicle being targeted in the town. I started calling my son and his wife, but there was no answer. Then my son Omar came screaming and saying that the car that was targeted was his brother’s car .”
She adds that her son, whom she described as kind and gentle-hearted, thought of his parents until his last breath, saying: “My grandsons Khaled and Mustafa told me that their father, on his way back from Nablus, bought meals for Suhoor and told them that he wanted them all to eat Suhoor with me and his father .”
It is reported that Israeli special forces infiltrated the town of Tammun after midnight last night, followed by military reinforcements from the Ein Shibli and Tayasir military checkpoints. This special force is the one that committed the massacre against the Ali Bani Odeh family, according to eyewitnesses.
With the martyrdom of the four in Tamoun, the number of martyrs in the Tubas Governorate since the beginning of the aggression on the Gaza Strip until today rises to 110 martyrs, 43 of whom are from the town of Tamoun, according to statistics from the National Gathering Office for the Families of Martyrs in the Tubas Governorate. The same statistics indicate that during the past year (2025), the number of martyrs in the Tubas Governorate reached 31 martyrs, 24 of whom were from the town of Tamoun.
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E.G./W.A.
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