Death of Palestinian American Boy in West Bank Sparks Outcry

Members of northern New Jersey’s Palestinian community gathered on Tuesday to condemn the recent killing of a Palestinian American boy by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank.

The boy, Amer Rabee, 14, was shot and killed in the town of Turmus Aya on Sunday, his family said. Two other Palestinian American teenagers who were with Amer at the time were shot and injured by the soldiers, the family said.

Amer, who was originally from Saddle Brook, N.J., moved with his family to the West Bank around 2013. The family said that since then, it had divided its time between the West Bank and New Jersey.

At a news conference on Tuesday, community leaders stood at a small wooden lectern at the Palestinian American Community Center in Clifton, N.J., to decry Amer’s death and call on the U.S. government to investigate the shooting. They were joined by Rami Jbara, an uncle of Amer’s, and by Amer’s father, Mohammed Rabee, who called in remotely from the West Bank.

“We cannot let this horrific crime be swept under the rug,” said Rania Mustafa, the center’s executive director.

“Our stories are consistently ignored,” she added. “Our people are consistently dehumanized. Our deaths are repeatedly ignored.”

The outcry over Amer’s death comes weeks after Israel launched a series of attacks on Gaza, breaking a cease-fire agreement in its war against Hamas. Just over 900 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers in the West Bank since Hamas’s attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the United Nations. Roughly 30 Israelis have been killed in the West Bank during the same period.

When asked on Tuesday about Amer’s death, Israel’s military did not acknowledge him by name.

“During a counterterrorism activity in the area of Turmus Aya, I.D.F. soldiers identified three terrorists who hurled rocks toward the highway, thus endangering civilians driving,” the military said in a statement, using its initials. “The soldiers opened fire toward the terrorists who were endangering civilians, eliminating one terrorist and hitting two additional terrorists.”

At the news conference, Mr. Rabee recounted the events surrounding his son’s death. He said he had been at home taking a nap on Sunday when Amer left to pick almonds. Mr. Rabee said he later woke to a phone call in which he learned that his son had been wounded.

Mr. Rabee said he had called the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem seeking medical help, but that the aid did not arrive in time. He said he learned an hour later that his son was dead and that his body had been taken to an Israeli military camp. It was there, several hours later, that he found his son’s body in a bag, Mr. Rabee said.

Ayoub Ijbara, one of the teenagers with Amer on Sunday, was shot three times, but managed to flee and find help, according a statement from the community center, whose members spoke to Ayoub’s family. Surveillance footage showed that the soldiers fired 47 shots at the three boys while they were picking almonds, according to the statement.

“Amer was shot in the chest and fell backward to the ground,” the statement said. “The other two boys went to help him, but too many shots were fired and so they began to retreat.”

Ayoub, 15, had a six-hour surgery on Monday and is scheduled to have another procedure on Wednesday, according to the statement. The boy was born in Little Ferry, N.J., the community center said, and moved to Tennessee before he and his family relocated to Turmus Aya.

Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey called Amer’s death an “atrocity” in a social media post on Monday. The state’s governor, Philip D. Murphy, demanded in a statement that the Israeli government provide answers about why Amer had been killed, lamenting the “tragic loss of life.”

Asked about the shootings during a briefing on Tuesday in Washington, a State Department spokeswoman, Tammy Bruce, said that U.S. officials were “certainly aware of that dynamic,” but stopped short of criticizing the Israeli government, citing an ongoing investigation.

“We send condolences to the families involved. These were teenagers,” Ms. Bruce said. She noted reports that the Israeli military believed it was stopping an act of terrorism, adding: “We need to learn more about the nature of what happened on the ground.”

The Israeli military sent a black-and-white video with its statement on Tuesday that it said showed Amer and the two other teenagers throwing rocks.

Mr. Rabee said he had seen the video and that there was no way to tell if Amer was one of the three people. Even if he was, Mr. Rabee said, Amer did not deserve to die.

“This land is called holy land,” Mr. Rabee said. “There’s supposed to be peace in this land, not war.”

Lara Jakes contributed reporting.