On April 6, in the evening, the 14-year-old Palestinian-American child Amer Mohammed Rabie was reported shot and killed by Israeli occupation forces at the entrance of Turmus Aya town, north of Ramallah.

One American-Citizen teenager killed

• Amer Mohammed Rabie, along with two other teens, was shot at the entrance to the town.

• According to The Palestine Red Crescent, its teams had taken the body of the deceased boy to a hospital.

• Amer Mohammed Saada Rabee, 14, was born in Saddlebrook, New Jersey, and lived between the occupied West Bank and the US;

• Amer, a US citizen, was shot 11 times and died from his injuries.

2 injured including another US-Palestinian citizens

• Two other boys were shot and injured in the lower abdomen and thigh respectively. Both boys - one with minor and the other with severe injuries - were taken to a Ramallah hospital.

• A 14-year-old Abdul Rahman Shehadeh : he told AFP he was shot by a soldier while collecting fruit near the town.

• A 14-year-old Ayoub Asaad was shot in the abdomen, and his father Ahed Asaad confirmed that the boy had a US passport.

Ambulance blocked by IDF

• Ahed Assad said that an ambulance that took his wounded son to hospital was stopped by soldiers : “We were stopped at a military checkpoint at the village entrance, and a soldier told me that he was the one who shot the three boys,“ he told AFP.

• The mayor, Adeeb Lafi, confirmed that two of the teens were rushed to a medical centre, while the third, Rabea, was detained by Israeli soldiers before being pronounced dead : "Two of them were transported by ambulance to a nearby medical center and then to the hospital. The army arrived at the scene and detained the third injured boy, who is 14 years old and holds US citizenship"

The Palestinian health ministry statement

• One person was in critical condition and another suffered minor injuries in the same incident.

• One of the wounded also had US citizenship. And Turmus Ayya, northest of the main West Bank city of Ramallah, is known for having many dual US-Palestinian citizens.

• The Palestinian Authority's foreign affairs ministry denounced the Israeli forces‘ “use of live fire against three children (...) Israel’s continued impunity as an illegal occupying power encourages it to commit further crimes”. The Palestinian health ministry confirmed Rabea's death, attributing it to "occupation forces."

Perpetrator:

According to a pro IDF account on X, the perpetrator was the 636th Field Intelligence Battalion "Nitzan" (Assigned to the 877th Division – West Bank) :"our fighters from Unit 636, who were on an ambush near the village of Turmus Ayya in the Ramallah area, spotted three terrorists throwing rocks at Jewish vehicles in an attempt to murder them. The fighters opened fire at them in order to eliminate the threat. One terrorist was killed; the other two apparently fled back to the village. Our forces are unharmed."

A short footage recorded in night vision was spread by IDF, showing three silhouets throwing little objects. The silhouets are then shot. This recording confirm the shot was not indiscriminated, nor perpetrated by "violent settlers" as wroten in the first articles like in the Guardian on Paril 6.

IDF statement

“The soldiers opened fire toward the terrorists who were endangering civilians, eliminating one terrorist and hitting two additional terrorists,“

Israeli soldiers said the boys were "throwing rocks" at Highway 60, a motorway that runs through the occupied West Bank from Beersheba to Nazareth. They described the boys as "terrorists"

Local council head Lafi Shalabi declaration

He rejected the army's assertion, saying it was a distortion of facts : "The Israelis are being misleading. The boys were there because they were picking almonds. Even if the boy threw something at you, why would you shoot him? Just stop him," According to him, there were settlers in the area at the time of the incidents who also fired shots, so it is not clear whether the gunfire came from the army. The IDF did not comment on whether there were indeed settlers in the area at the time.

The Turmus Ayya Local Council has asked the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem to intervene in the incident.

Context

Israel has occupied illegaly the West Bank, home to about three million Palestinians, since 1967. Violence has soared in the West Bank since in retaliation of then October 7 Hamas attack, even if there was no attack from this area. Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 918 Palestinians, including militants, in the West Bank since then, according to Palestinian health ministry figures. While Palestinian resistance and clashes during military raids have killed at least 33 Israelis, including soldiers, over the same period, according to official figures.

The mother of Palestinian-American boy Omar Mohammad Rabea,14, who was killed by Israeli forces in Turmus Ayya village, mourning his body at a hospital, near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank April 6,2025. REUTERS

*Testimony of the Amer's father

At a press conference at the Palestinian American Community Center (PACC) in New Jersey, organizers condemned Israeli violence with U.S. government backing. Mohammed, father of the slain boy Amer, spoke via Zoom from the occupied West Bank.

Amer's father, Mohammed, said his son, along with the other two boys, were climbing trees, and if they were throwing stones - of which there is no evidence that they were - it was likely they were trying to break off almonds to eat when they were fired upon by Israeli soldiers. “Even if he was throwing stones [at anyone], he was 14 years old. They could have caught him and stopped him, but they wanted to kill him".

He said the Israeli military opened fire on three boys, and they shot 14-year-old Amer Rabee 11 times, including two in the head. He contacted the U.S. embassy but was met with delays and "unnecessary" questions despite his U.S. citizenship.

Hours later, he was told his son’s body was at a military base near Nablus.The body was returned in a blue bag, without clothes.

The Palestinian American Community Center in Clifton, New Jersey, held a press conference on Tuesday to address killing of 14-year-old Amer (Azad Essa/MEE)

US State Department statement

On Tuesday, the US State Department said it was "aware" of the killing by Israeli forces of a Palestinian-American teenager, adding that it was still seeking more information on what had transpired.

The previous harassement of his family house:

According to Yesh Din ONG:

"We met M.R. last summer in Turmusaya. His home, located on the town’s agricultural lands, was set on fire by settlers, apparently from one of the newly established farm outposts in the area that have been terrorizing the local Palestinian residents.

On June 22, 2024, M.’s security cameras recorded a large group of young men conducting a “tour” of the area—two of them even took the time to dance in front of the camera. A week later, masked men arrived and smashed several of the cameras. M. watched it all unfold in real time and called the Palestinian DCO (District Coordination Office), asking them to summon the Israeli police to stop the attack. But the police only arrived the following day.

When M. tried to reach the site to speak with the officers, soldiers cursed at him and expelled him from his own home. On Saturday, July 6, the masked men returned—this time, they poured flammable liquid into the house, set it ablaze with all its contents inside, and caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage. The next day, they returned and destroyed the remaining cameras documenting the incident. M., who, naturally, was afraid to approach for fear of being attacked, watched everything unfold via the app on his phone.

On April 6, 2025, he received the worst news of his life: his 14-year-old son had been shot and killed by Israeli soldiers. Two of his son’s friends who were with him were wounded.. The army claimed they were “terrorists” who had thrown stones at a nearby road. According to the head of the Turmusaya council, the boys had been picking almonds, and even if they had thrown stones, they could have been arrested instead of being shot with live fire. He added that armed settlers were present at the scene.

On April 18, we received a notice from the Samaria and Judea District Police that the arson case was closed on the grounds of “unknown suspect.”