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17-year-old Reda Kamal Mahmoud Bani Odeh was killed on May 15 during an Israeli attack on Tammoun, according to documentation collected by DCIP. (Photo: Courtesy of the Bani Odeh family)

[Beside killing Odeh, Israeli forces reported using women & children as human shields, & confiscating Odeh's corpse and those of 4 others.]
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by Defense for Children International– Palestine (DCIP)

Ramallah, May 16, 2025—Isareli forces carried out an attack in the northern occupied West Bank yesterday where they killed a Palestinian boy and used a girl as a human shield.

17-year-old Reda Kamal Mahmoud Bani Odeh was killed when the Israeli military besieged a three-story residential building in the Al-Meshmas neighborhood of Tammoun, located south of Tubas in the northern occupied West Bank, yesterday morning, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International - Palestine. Israeli forces surrounded and besieged the building from about 6:30 a.m. to 11 a.m., resulting in armed confrontations, and once the soldiers confirmed every Palestinian in the building had been killed, they demolished the building. Israeli forces removed four bodies, including Reda, in the blade of a military bulldozer, and are withholding them.

“Israeli forces regularly carry out attacks and incursions into Palestinian communities throughout the occupied West Bank, killing, arresting, and terrorizing Palestinian children with impunity,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP. “These attacks on Palestinian childhood will not end unless world leaders take firm action to hold Israeli authorities accountable.”

During the attack, Israeli special forces entered nearby houses and detained many Palestinians, including women and children, in the courtyard of a house opposite the besieged building. Israeli soldiers positioned themselves behind the group of Palestinians, firing their weapons toward the building over their heads.

An 11-year-old girl, Heba*, began crying uncontrollably and vomited several times during the gunfire and repeated explosions, saying she couldn’t breathe and was about to faint from fear. Heba was in the courtyard with her mother and sister, alongside their neighbors, when her father arrived from his work to try and get her medical attention. Israeli soldiers refused to let Heba leave, gave her a small drink of water, then took her phone and stepped on it.

Later, the soldiers forced Heba’s father to go to the targeted building to convince those inside to surrender. He went but reported that he found no one inside. The soldiers made him return and repeat the request, but he again confirmed the building was empty. After that, the soldiers escalated the assault, launching heavy gunfire and sending a small drone into the building through its windows, dropping explosives that caused multiple blasts and thick clouds of smoke.

Heba collapsed, still crying, and said she was afraid she was going to die and feared for her father’s life as he was beaten by Israeli soldiers in front of her.

The soldiers forced Heba’s father to enter the building once again and ordered him to film a video using his phone, showing the bodies of the deceased Palestinians inside. They also instructed him to throw down their weapons from one of the windows, which he did under threat.

Around 11 a.m., the soldiers released a police dog equipped with body-mounted cameras and sent it into the building to ensure no survivors remained. Once they confirmed that everyone inside had been killed, the soldiers entered the building, followed by two military bulldozers that began demolishing what remained of the building’s walls.

During the attack, Israeli forces killed five Palestinians, including 17-year-old Reda, and confiscated four bodies, including Reda.

Israeli forces have killed 25 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank in 2025, according to documentation collected by DCIP.

Israeli forces have withheld the bodies of at least 48 Palestinian children since June 2016, according to documentation collected by DCIP. Six of the children’s bodies have since been released to their families, while 42 Palestinian children’s bodies remain withheld by Israeli authorities.

Israeli authorities’ practice of confiscating and withholding Palestinian bodies is a violation of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, which include absolute prohibitions on cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, as well as stipulate that parties of an armed conflict must bury the deceased in an honorable way. For families, the practice amounts to collective punishment in violation of international humanitarian law.

In September 2019, the Israeli Supreme Court approved the practice of confiscating human remains after several legal challenges to the policy. On November 27, 2019, Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett ordered all bodies of Palestinians alleged to have attacked Israeli citizens or soldiers to be withheld and not returned to their families. Israel is the only country in the world with such a policy of confiscating human remains, according to Adalah.

In 2024, Israeli forces and settlers killed at least 93 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank, according to documentation collected by DCIP. Israeli forces and settlers shot and killed 71 Palestinian children with live ammunition, 17 Palestinian children were killed in drone strikes, three Palestinian children were killed in an Israeli warplane airstrike, one child was killed by Israeli-fired ground shell, and one child was killed by unexploded ordnance (UXO) left behind by Israeli forces.

*Heba is a pseudonym to protect the girls' privacy and safety. Her full name is known to DCIP.