While Benjamin Netanyahu was getting the “red carpet treatment” at the White House, on April 6 Israeli soldiers shot at three boys who were picking green almonds in a field near the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya, according to witnesses. The soldiers killed Amer Rabee, a 14-year-old American; wounded Ayoub Jabara, a 15-year-old American, who is in intensive care at a Ramallah hospital; and also wounded Abdulrahman Shihada, a 15-year-old Palestinian, who was treated at a local hospital. The two wounded boys managed to flee the shooting, and an ambulance took them to the hospital. Israeli officials justified the shooting by claiming that the boys were throwing stones in the direction of Highway 60, and released a grainy, low-grade 10-second video showing one boy allegedly throwing something.
Turmus Ayva is known locally as “Little America,” because some 85% of the residents hold U.S. citizenship. Amer Rabee, the American youth who was killed on Sunday, was buried the following day in the town’s cemetery, next to Omar Qateen, who was also an American permanent resident who was killed by a settler attack in 2023. Many attending Rabee’s funeral were also U.S. citizens. The U.S. State Department issued a statement reading, “We can confirm the death of a U.S. citizen in the West Bank. We offer our sincerest condolences to the family on their loss.”
Other Americans killed by the Israeli military in the West Bank include Aysenur Eygi, a 26-year-old Turkish American, who was shot in the head near the village of Beita in the West Bank in September, 2024. Her family issued a statement saying that “an American citizen was killed by a foreign military in a targeted attack,” and called for action from the then Biden administration. In January 2024, 17-year-old Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, born and raised in Louisiana, was shot and killed while driving. There was a still unexplained incident involving Israeli police, Israeli military, and Israeli settlers, but Jabbar was driving away when he was fatally shot in the head. In February 2024, another 17-year-old American, Mohammad Ahmad Alkhdour, was shot in the head in the West Bank and also while driving near the town of Biddu. Alkhdour was killed by “Israeli Forces” according to Defense for Children International.