On Monday, Palestinians in the West Bank village of Turmus Ayya held a funeral for Omar Mohammad Rabee, a 14-year-old American citizen who was killed by Israeli fire a day earlier.
Lafi Shalabi, the mayor of Turmus Ayya, said Rabee was shot alongside two other boys, including Ayoub Jabara, a 15-year-old who also has American citizenship and is in intensive care. The third boy, 15-year-old Abdulrahman Shihada, was also hospitalized.
According to The Washington Post, Shalabi said the boys were shot by Israeli troops while picking green almonds near a highway.
The Israeli military hasn’t confirmed that it killed an American citizen but claimed it fired on three “terrorists” in the area who were throwing rocks at cars and killed one. Earlier this year, Israeli media reported that the IDF expanded its “open-fire orders” in the West Bank, leading to an uptick in the killing of children in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The US State Department confirmed in a statement to Antiwar.com that an American citizen was killed in the West Bank but didn’t offer much comment besides mentioning the Israeli military’s side of the story. “We offer our sincerest condolences to the family on their loss,” a State Department spokesperson said.
“We acknowledge the IDF initial statement that expressed that this incident occurred during a counter-terrorism operation and that Israel is investigating. Out of respect for the privacy of the family during this difficult time, we have no further comment at this time,” the spokesperson added.
Rabee was from Saddle Brook, a town in northern New Jersey’s Bergen Country. According to NorthJersey.com, mourners gathered on Sunday for prayers at the Palestinian American Community Center in Clifton, New Jersey. The center said in a statement that the Israeli military delayed the ambulance that was carrying Rabee.
“Amer was shot by Israeli military officers along with two other 15-year-olds from the village,” the center said. “The ambulance was not allowed to pass the checkpoint for 30 minutes, a denial in medical treatment that ultimately resulted in Amer’s death. Amer’s death was entirely preventable and horrifically unjust. He was a child, a 14-year-old boy, with an entire life ahead of him.”
Rabee’s mother told the Post that her son planned to move back to the US after high school to be with his four older siblings. The village of Turmus Ayya is known as “Little America” because about 80% of its population has American citizenship.
Turmus Ayya has been the target of Israeli settler violence, which has skyrocketed in recent years, and its American residents have pleaded with the US government for help. In one incident in July 2023, settlers set fire to dozens of homes and cars in the village and killed Omar Qateen, a 27-year-old permanent American resident, who Rabee was buried alongside.
