Calls for Justice After Israeli Occupation Forces Kill Palestinian-American Child in West Bank
"Our government's responsibility is to protect its citizens," said U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. "Instead, we're arming their murderers. Arms embargo now."
As U.S. President Donald Trump rolled out the White House red carpet for fugitive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, Palestine defenders demanded justice after Israeli troops opened fire on a group of children in the illegally occupied West Bank, killing one Palestinian-American boy and wounding two others.
Fourteen-year-old Omar Mohammad Rabea and two other Palestinian-American boys, ages 14 and 15, were shot by Israeli occupation forces in Turmus Ayya, northeast of Ramallah.
"Two of them were transported by ambulance to a nearby medical center and then to the hospital," said Turmus Ayya Mayor Adeeb Lafi. "The army arrived at the scene and detained the third injured boy, who is 14 years old and holds U.S. citizenship."
Rabea's father said his son was shot six times—twice each in the face, chest, and shoulder.
The Palestinian National Authority's Foreign Ministry condemned Israeli forces' "use of live fire against three children," adding that "Israel's continued impunity as an illegal occupying power encourages it to commit further crimes."
The Israel Defense Forces claimed on social media that troops "identified three terrorists who were throwing rocks at a highway with civilian vehicles" and subsequently "fired at the terrorists who posed a danger to civilians, killing one of them and wounding the other two."
In the United States, the slain teen's relatives in New Jersey expressed anger over the killing. Rabea's father toldAgence France-Presse that the U.S. government habitually ignores or downplays Israeli crimes against Palestinians, including "assaults, killings, arson, and theft of Palestinian land."
"All of these things—the U.S. Embassy turns a blind eye to them," he said.
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the only Palestinian-American member of Congress, said on the social media site X: "Our government's responsibility is to protect its citizens. Instead we're arming their murderers. Arms embargo now."
Rep. Chuy García (D-Ill.) also took to X, noting reporting that Rabea "was denied medical aid and left to die."
"This atrocity must be condemned and investigated," the congressman added. "We cannot turn a blind eye."
The Institute for Middle East Understanding said on the social media site Bluesky that "Israel must be held accountable for its killings of American citizens—from aid workers, journalists, and humanitarian observers to children and the elderly."
However, "instead of pursuing justice for its citizens, the U.S. government is backing Israel's impunity by arming its violence," IMEU continued.
"The U.S. government's refusal to demand accountability for Israel's endless killings of Palestinians‚ even when it kills U.S. citizens—has deadly consequences," the group added. "That impunity emboldens Israeli soldiers and settlers to keep brutally attacking Palestinian children and families. Enough."
Other American citizens killed by Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank include International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activist Rachel Corrie, age 23 (2003); Orwah Hamad, age 14 (2014); Mahmoud Shaalan, age 16 (2016); journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, age 51 (2022); Omar Assad, age 78 (2022); Tawfiq Hafez Tawfiq Ajaq, age 17 (2024); Mohammad Ahmed Mohammad Khdour, age 17 (2024); and Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old ISM activist (2024).
Successive U.S. administrations have provided Israel with more than $300 billion in aid since the modern Jewish state's founding, largely through terrorism and ethnic cleansing, in 1948—far more than any other nation has received.
On Monday, Trump welcomed Netanyahu at the White House. The prime minister's flight from Hungary, where he met with far-right President Viktor Orbán, reportedly went out of its way to avoid the airspace of European nations that might enforce an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for the Israeli leader for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Israel is also facing a genocide case brought by South Africa before the International Court of Justice.
Israel's 539-day genocidal assault continued Monday in Gaza, where more than 180,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded—including thousands of missing people who are presumed dead and buried beneath rubble—since October 2023, when Hamas led the deadliest-ever attack on Israel.
In the West Bank—which Israel has illegally occupied and colonized since 1967 and where more than 700,000 Jewish colonists have settled—United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk last week lamented Palestinians' "catastrophic suffering," calling the situation there "extremely alarming."
Türk noted that his office has verified that Israeli soldiers and settlers—sometimes working together—have killed at least 909 Palestinians across the West Bank including East Jerusalem since October 2023, including 191 children and five people with disabilities. Attacks by Palestinian militants have killed 51 Israelis including 15 women and 4 children over that same period.
Thousands of West Bank Palestinians have been
killed or wounded by IDF troops and Israeli settlers since October 2023. Last week, Roland Friedrich, who heads the West Bank division of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, said that the scale of forced displacement is unprecedented during the 58 years of Israeli occupation.
