A 14-year-old American boy, Omar Mohammed Rabea, was killed by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya on Sunday. Israeli authorities justified the shooting because Rabea and two other children were throwing rocks.
President Donald Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the first international leader to visit the White House after the president’s tariff announcement, in the Oval Office.
The incident has sparked significant controversy, with conflicting reports regarding the circumstances of the shooting, and it also raises questions regarding the treatment of U.S. citizens in the occupied territories.
Rabea’s shooting is the latest in a series of deaths of American nationals involving Israeli forces. Among the previous cases, U.S. citizens Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist, and Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a Turkish-American activist, were also killed in incidents involving Israeli soldiers.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the killing of 26-year-old American Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, during a protest against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, was “unprovoked and unjustified,” after she was shot in the back of her head by Israeli forces. Eygi was born in Turkey in 1998 and raised in Seattle, Washington.
The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) called on civilians from around the world to participate in acts of nonviolent protests against the Israeli military in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Eygi was the third ISM volunteer killed by Israeli forces; Rachel Corrie, an American, was killed as she protested the demolition of a house in Gaza in 2003, and Tom Hurndall, a British photography student, was shot in the head by an Israeli sniper that same year.
Israeli military killed five Americans during Blinken’s term in office but the deaths of many Americans have gone largely unacknowledged by U.S. officials, who continue to supply the weapons used to commit the killings.
President Donld Trump is meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today, but it is unlikely they will discuss the American child’s killing.
The Trump administration shipped to Israel more than 20,000 rifles that had been held back by the Biden administration over concerns they would be used to further illegal occupation of the West Bank.
The State Department notified Congress of the $24 million sale to the Israeli National Police last month.
According to the Israeli military, the soldiers opened fire during a counterterrorism operation in the area after identifying three individuals who were allegedly hurling rocks at vehicles on a nearby highway, endangering the safety of civilians.
The military’s statement described the children as “terrorists” and stated that one was killed while two others were wounded.
“During an operational activity by fighters from Unit 636 in the Turmusaiya area of the Samaria Brigade, the force identified three terrorists who were throwing rocks at a highway with civilian vehicles,” said the official IDF social media account. “The fighters fired at the terrorists who posed a danger to civilians, killing one of them and wounding the other two terrorists.”
“IDF forces will continue to operate defensively and offensively throughout Judea and Samaria for the security of the region’s residents,” said the IDF.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health identified the victim as Omar Mohammed Rabea, a U.S. citizen, and confirmed his death.
Two other teenagers, aged 14 and 15, were injured in the attack and were treated at a local hospital. Their injuries, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, include wounds to the abdomen and thigh.
Earlier reports from Turmus Ayya’s mayor, Adeeb Lafi, suggested that the shooting was carried out by an Israeli settler at the entrance to the town, but the Israeli army has confirmed that it was their soldiers who were involved.
The incident took place amid a surge in violence in the West Bank, with increasing confrontations between Israeli forces, armed Palestinians, and settlers.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the killing, labeling it an “extra-judicial killing” and attributing it to Israel’s ongoing impunity.
“This is another example of Israel’s continued disregard for Palestinian lives,” the ministry stated. “This brutal act only deepens the crisis in the region.”
The killing comes amid rising tensions in the West Bank, where settler violence and military operations have intensified, particularly following the onset of the Gaza war in October 2023. In response to the violence, European nations and previous U.S. administrations imposed sanctions on Israeli settlers, though the current U.S. administration under President Donald Trump has removed these sanctions.
As tensions continue to rise, the situation in the West Bank remains precarious, with escalating violence and increasing international scrutiny on Israel’s military operations and settlement policies.
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