From the Joy of Eid to the Funeral of the Ali Bani Oda Family.. This Is How the Occupation Transforms Palestinian Moments

SadaNews - In Palestine, where endless pains and renewed sorrows exist, the colors of joy for children turn into a repulsive red blood that obliterates all meanings of childhood, and time stands still at a moment that should have been a beautiful memory in the minds of a family trying to bring joy to their children amidst the tragic circumstances they endure in the West Bank.

After midnight on Sunday, laughter echoed in the vehicle of Ali Bani Oda, who took his four children, Othman, Mohammed, Mustafa, and Khaled, with his wife Wad to buy Eid clothes. On their way back from Nablus to their warm home in Tamoun, in the Tubas district, an Israeli force showered their vehicle with bullets, resulting in the death of the parents along with their 7-year-old son Othman and 5-year-old son Mohammed, before they could lay out their new clothes for the anticipated day, as is the custom of children. The two brothers, Mustafa aged 8, and Khaled aged 11, were injured by bullet shrapnel in the head, remaining as witnesses to one of the horrific massacres that occur successively against Palestinian citizens, sometimes at the hands of the occupation army, and other times by its settlers.

The older brother Khaled, 11 years old, recounts the details of what happened with eyes filled with questions, as if expressing disbelief in what had transpired, and with a trembling voice: "We were coming back from Nablus after finishing buying Eid clothes, and suddenly gunfire started directly at us; we didn’t know the source. Everyone in the car was shot except for me and my brother Mustafa."

Khaled added: "The soldiers assaulted me and tried to beat my brother Mustafa, but when I tried to stop them, they threw me to the ground and continued beating me," pointing out that he heard the soldiers saying, "We killed dogs."
"Do you love your father and mother?" This was a question Khaled posed to one of the soldiers, who answered yes, to which Khaled immediately followed up with the next question, "Why did you kill my father and mother?" The soldier continued the cycle of beating and assault on the body of a child who has not yet grown up.

Khaled continued: "The last thing I heard from my father was his Shahada (testimony of faith); he pronounced the two testimonies and passed away, and my mother said 'that's enough' and I didn’t hear their voices afterward."

A witness to the crime said: "The murder of the family took place right in front of my house, and the gunfire was intense and targeted directly at the vehicle, as the Israeli special forces fired more than 50 bullets all at once at the car," explaining: "The Israeli army prevented the Red Crescent crews from reaching the injured at that time and forced them to leave the area."

Later, the bodies of the martyrs were allowed to be received for their funeral in their town of Tamoun.

According to the residents of Tamoun, Ali Bani Oda was known for his kindness and good morals among people and was an example of a simple person who works hard in his daily life to provide a decent living for his family.

According to the Shireen Observatory, 35 martyrs, including 5 children, two women, and an elderly man, have been killed by the occupation and its settlers since the beginning of this year.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the incident as "a horrific and horrifying massacre and not an isolated incident, but part of a comprehensive and systematic aggression aimed at annihilating the Palestinian people and displacing them," affirming that it will pursue the killers in all international forums.

In an attempt to justify the crime, the spokespersons for the Israeli army and police issued a joint statement saying that "during a field operation by security forces in the village of Tamoun to arrest wanted individuals, a vehicle attempted to approach the forces, posing a threat, and the forces responded by opening fire, resulting in the deaths of four Palestinians inside the vehicle and the circumstances of the incident are under investigation by the relevant authorities."

Meanwhile, Fatah movement warned of the danger of continued bloody escalation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, whether by the army or its settlers, calling on Palestinians to remain vigilant against the assaults of the occupation and colonizers, to engage in popular protection committees to defend villages and residential gatherings, and to escalate popular resistance in defense of land and existence until the occupation is removed.

Meanwhile, Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements stated that the response to the fully developed crime necessitates escalating confrontation.