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Photos: Published by IMEMC News

Hamza Ammar Ahmad Bisharat, 10, Adam Khairuddin Ahmad Bisharat, 23, and Rida Ali Ahmad Bisharat, 8.

Composite photo.
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by IMEMC News
Jan 9, 2025

On Wednesday, Palestinian medical sources confirmed that Israeli soldiers killed three Palestinians, including two children, after firing a missile from a drone at them. A fourth Palestinian later died from serious wounds in Tammun, south of Tubas, in the occupied West Bank’s northeastern part.

The sources stated that the army fired a missile from a drone at several Palestinians in Tammun before soldiers invaded the area and prevented Palestinian medics from reaching them.

After killing the three Palestinians, the army took their corpses away and later handed them back to Palestinian medics.

They have been identified as Rida Ali Ahmad Bisharat, 8, Hamza Ammar Ahmad Bisharat, 10, and Adam Khairuddin Ahmad Bisharat, 23.

The soldiers also abducted five Palestinians who were wounded in the bombing after preventing Palestinian medics from reaching them.

In related news, the Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed the death of Abdul-Rahman Bani Odah, 24, from serious wounds he suffered in a similar Israeli bombing on Tuesday in Tammun.

The ministry added that the slain Palestinian was among several young men targeted by the Israeli drone before soldiers invaded the area and took his corpse.

On Tuesday dawn, the army also fired a missile from a drone at a group of Palestinians in Tammun, killing two citizens, including the young man,Suleiman Mustafa Qteishat, 18.

Also on Tuesday, Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man after invading the village of Al-Badhan, northeast of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank.

Media sources said that undercover Israeli agents infiltrated the village of Al-Badhan at dawn Tuesday and opened fire at the citizen, Jafar Ahmad Faleh Dababseh, 40.

In related news, soldiers shot four Palestinian young men in the Al-Fawwar refugee camp, south of Hebron in the southern West Bank.

Since the beginning of the Israeli military onslaught against the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, Israeli forces have killed 845 Palestinians in the West Bank, including 175 children, and injured 7,000.
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IDF on Killing of Two Palestinian Kids in West Bank Aerial Attack: 'It Was Hard to Determine They Were Minors'

The Israeli army's internal investigation into the Bsharat cousins' deaths concludes that further steps should have been taken to verify the identities of the individuals targeted by the drone. They were targeted after the IDF mistakenly concluded they were planting IEDs. The findings have not yet been submitted to the Military Advocate General, and no disciplinary or legal actions have been taken

by Hagar Shezaf for Haaretz
Jan 29, 2025 12:45 pm IST

Eight-year-old Reda Ali Ahmed Bsharat and 10-year-old Hamza Ammar Ahmed Bsharat, who were killed in an IDF drone strike earlier this month in the northern West Bank village of Tammun, were mistakenly identified as adults planting an explosive device, according to an IDF investigation into the incident. The army later found no explosives at the site.

The two cousins were killed alongside their other cousin, 23-year-old Adam Khair al-Din Ahmed Bsharat. According to the army's investigation, "the identification process during the incident made it difficult to determine that they were minors."

The conclusions of the investigation were delivered to the head of the IDF's Central Command, but have not yet been submitted to the Military Advocate General. As a result, no decision has been made regarding the potential launch of a military police criminal investigation.

According to the army's investigation, intelligence was received about a possible terrorist cell planting explosive devices. A drone was deployed and identified three individuals handling something on the ground.

A military source told Haaretz that after the three individuals were mistakenly identified by forces on the ground as planting explosive devices, a request to strike them was submitted up the chain of command and ultimately approved by the head of the IDF's Central Command.

The investigation concludes that it would have been more appropriate to take additional steps to clearly verify the identities of the individuals targeted in the strike.

Amar, Hamza's father, told Haaretz the day after the incident that his son and nephew were preparing to go to school that morning and were in the yard when the attack happened.

After the two children and their cousin were killed, soldiers came to their house and took their bodies, wrapped in blankets. The bodies were returned to the grieving family only after several hours.

Amar stated that army representatives who had spoken with him admitted the attack was "a mistake."

"That doesn't help me," he told Haaretz. "This was my son, who was born after ten years of marriage, through in vitro fertilization, and now the army comes and tells me they're sorry."

Their cousin, Adam, who was also killed in the drone strike, had been working in Jewish settlements in the Jordan Valley before the incident, as had his father and uncle.

In the past, military police investigations were automatically launched when Palestinians were killed as a result of IDF operations in the West Bank. However, the current practice is that investigations are not initiated automatically during combat-related incidents, but are only launched after a review by military prosecutors.

Recently, however, an increasing number of violent incidents are being classified as "combat-related." In the case of the Bsharat cousins, the findings have not yet reached the Military Advocate General, and no disciplinary measures or legal action have been taken against the soldiers involved in the attack.

The scope of IDF airstrikes in the West Bank has expanded significantly since the start of the war. According to army figures released earlier this month, 110 airstrikes have been carried out in the West Bank since the war began, resulting in the deaths of 220 Palestinians.