Israeli forces said they killed a ‘terrorist.' He was 14 years old.
The Israeli military has accused Amer and two of his friends of hurling rocks toward the highway and endangering civilians. It described the boys as 'terrorists,' and said its soldiers had 'eliminated' one and shot the two others.
Amer's family and one of the surviving boys deny the accusation, saying they were picking almonds. Amer was shot multiple times in his upper body, according to photographs his family shared with The New York Times.
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Amer's killing has added to accusations that the Israeli military uses excessive force and operates with impunity. It came amid a sharp spike in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, where the Israeli military has been carrying out raids and tightening control in the most sweeping crackdown on militancy there in a generation. Rampages by extremist settlers against Palestinians have also increased recently.
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Amer's death has also raised questions about the US response to helping its own citizens. Senators Andy Kim and Cory Booker of New Jersey have called for a US-led investigation into Amer's death, but the Trump administration has remained largely noncommittal.
Last month, the State Department spokesperson, Tammy Bruce, said at a press briefing the Israeli military believed it was stopping an act of terrorism. 'We need to learn more about the nature of what happened on the ground,' she added. American officials did not respond to a request for further information.
More than 900 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, mostly by the Israeli military and some by settlers, since the Hamas-led offensive against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the United Nations. Roughly 30 Israelis have been killed by Palestinians in the West Bank during that period.
From 2018 to 2022, less than one-third of complaints that soldiers had harmed Palestinians in the West Bank resulted in an investigation, according to a recent report by Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights organization. Only a fraction have led to legal action.
A Hail of Gunfire
The three young boys had gone out to pick green almonds, a seasonal delicacy, in a terraced orchard between Turmus Aya and Route 60, a busy north-south artery linking a patchwork of Palestinian towns and Jewish settlements, one of the friends, Ayoub Jabara, 14, told the Times at his home in Turmus Aya.
He denied that they had thrown stones, saying that they had merely been throwing dried almonds at each other. Ayoub, who is also a Palestinian American, described reaching a point very close to the main road, and finding a tree with dried-up nuts. 'Amer picked one up and was joking that it was like a stone and threw it at me. I threw it back,' he said.
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Amer was shot at least 11 times, according to his father, Mohammed Rabee. Photographs taken on the cellphone of a family friend who accompanied Rabee when they picked up Amer's body appeared to show several entry wounds, including one in the center of his forehead and others in his neck and upper torso.
Hours after the shooting, the Israeli military issued a 10-second clip of blurry footage without a time stamp that shows three unidentifiable figures appearing to gather things from the ground. One of the figures appears to fling something in a downward motion, though no object is visible. The video cuts out as all three appear to turn and run.
The military said that its footage was filmed from a military post and that the soldiers were lying in ambush in what they described as a counterterrorism operation in the area.
Four days after Amer died, reporters for the Times searched the ridge where he was killed for any signs of the shooting and came across the clothes.
Garments that appeared to have been cut off by soldiers and blue surgical gloves were scattered around a bloodstained rock. The military said it was standard procedure to remove clothes to ensure the body was not booby-trapped. The clothes were later identified by the family as Amer's, when the reporters returned them to the family at their home.
Even if the boys did throw stones, Mohammed Rabee said, the soldiers could have fired warning shots to scare them away, or could have chased and detained them. 'He was 14 years old,' he said. 'It takes no special training to catch a little kid.'
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Instead, the soldiers fired a barrage of bullets at him. His family believes they wanted to kill him. The military declined to confirm or deny that it has a shoot-to-kill policy for stone throwers.
Ayoub, Amer's friend, suffered 'multiple gunshot wounds,' according to medical records from the Istishari Arab hospital in nearby Ramallah, where he spent three days in the intensive care unit. Both Dr. Mohammad Qneibi, a physician at a local clinic where Ayoub was first taken, and Ayoub's father, Ahed Jabara, told the Times that the boy was shot at least three times in the groin area.
The family of the third boy, Abdulrahman Shihada, 15, declined to be interviewed.
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Atlantic
28 minutes ago
- Atlantic
The White House Is Delighted With Events in Los Angeles
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The administration's decision to federalize 4,000 California National Guard forces, contrary to Governor Gavin Newsom's wishes, and to dispatch 700 active-duty Marines to the Los Angeles area, marks a break with decades of tradition under which presidents have limited their use of the military on American soil. If there are any internal misgivings about busting through yet another democratic norm, they haven't surfaced publicly. Indeed, officials at the White House told us they are satisfied with the way the L.A. confrontation has unfolded. They believe that it highlights their focus on immigration and law and order, and places Democrats on the wrong side of both. One widely circulated photo—showing a masked protester standing in front of a burning car, waving a Mexican flag—has been embraced by Trump supporters as a distillation of the conflict: a president unafraid to use force to defend an American city from those he deems foreign invaders. 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Arizona governor vetoes bill banning teaching antisemitism, calls it an attack on educators
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Los Angeles Times
an hour ago
- Los Angeles Times
O.C. politicians denounce ICE raids as the National Guard deploys in Santa Ana
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Federal agents shot pepper balls to disperse people who attempted to block vans from exiting the building. The protest swelled in numbers around Civic Center Plaza in downtown when the Santa Ana Police Department declared an unlawful assembly at about 8:30 p.m. Fireworks exploded near local and federal authorities. Some protesters also hurled rocks, bottles and other projectiles toward law enforcement. Officers shot pepper balls, tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowds. Natalie Garcia, a spokesperson for the Santa Ana Police Department, confirmed that officers arrested 11 people Monday on suspicion of failure to disperse, assault on an officer and vandalism. In Sacramento Tuesday, the California Latino Legislative Caucus held a news conference where Assemblyman Avelino Valencia (D-Anaheim) denounced the ICE raids, as the 68th District he represents includes Santa Ana. 'It really is heartbreaking to witness what is unfolding in our communities across our state,' he said. 'Let me be clear: President Trump is using these raids to intimidate our communities and instill fear.' 'This deportation tactic that the president is implementing is about demonstrating his ability to govern through brute force,' Valencia added. Other Santa Ana elected officials held another press conference in front of the Old Orange County Courthouse on Tuesday afternoon. Orange County Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento recalled consoling a woman whose uncle was detained by immigration authorities at a Santa Ana Home Depot while seeking work. 'To the federal administration, we demand that you take your militarized equipment and troops and stop occupying our communities immediately,' he said. 'Yesterday, I personally witnessed the efforts of ICE officers clearly intending to escalate what was a lawful and peaceful demonstration.' In downtown Santa Ana, National Guard troops in beige camouflage with rifles slung on their shoulders blocked vehicle access along 4th Street near the Ronald Reagan Federal Building and Courthouse on Tuesday morning. Correa told TimesOC that it's an 'irony' that National Guard troops are in Santa Ana when, on Jan. 6, 2021, they hadn't been deployed during the pro-Trump Capitol riot in Washington, D.C. as he took cover in the House chamber. Correa called for protests to be peaceful in the non-violent tradition of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during the press conference while also deeming the ICE raids to be 'counterproductive.' 'If you've got serious, violent criminals in our community, come get them,' he said. 'But workers that are taking care of our seniors, feeding us, being part of the economic miracle that's called California, let's work on that. We need immigration reform.' Even before Monday's raids, federal agents arrested individuals after their ICE check-in appointments in Santa Ana on June 6. 'It's my understanding that in a lot of cases, they're going before a judge,' Correa told TimesOC. 'Authorities will, essentially, dismiss an order of deportation. [But] before they walk out, they're rearrested and put on an expedited order of deportation.' As the Trump administration deployed 700 active-duty Marines, some of them remain at the Naval Weapons Station in Seal Beach. They have not appeared in Santa Ana as of Tuesday evening. Correa told the press that his community does not need Marines. 'What are we coming to?' he said. 'This is not America.'
