An Israeli politician has said there are “no innocent children” in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, after Israeli forces killed a Palestinian family in the area.
Yitzhak Kroizer, whose party is led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and is part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing coalition, said he stood behind Israeli soldiers “in every situation”.
“Even if the collateral damage includes children or women, it doesn’t matter to me,” he added, during an address in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.
Ali Khaled Bani Odeh, 37, his wife Waad Othman Bani Odeh, 35, and their two children, Othman, seven, and Mohammed, five, were shot and killed in their family car while travelling back from an Eid shopping trip. Israeli media said the attack was carried out by an “elite unit”.
The two other children in the family, Khaled, 12, and Mustafa, eight, were injured by shrapnel. Khaled said Israeli troops fired directly on their car, and that Israeli troops who pulled him from the vehicle said “we killed dogs”.
None of the Border Police troops who carried out the killings have been questioned by investigators, Israeli outlet Haaretz reported earlier this week. Sources familiar with the investigation said authorities decided not to question them because they believed their accounts that they fired “out of fear for their lives”.
Mr Kroizer has also said that “no civilian should live south of the Litani”, a river in southern Lebanon, and has called for his country to have the borders of “Greater Israel”, a biblical concept that could extend into Iraq.
Palestinian-Israeli politician Ayman Odeh said he had filed a complaint with the Knesset’s ethics committee and posted on X that “everywhere, there are innocent people, Israelis and Palestinians alike”.
“Everywhere, there are innocent children who want to play, to sing, to draw, to dance, to dream, who simply want to live,” he added.
