Ramallah, July 26, 2025—Israeli forces killed three Palestinian boys in the occupied West Bank last week.
15-year-old Mohammad Khaled Hassan Mabrouk, 15-year-old Ahmad Ali Asaad Salah, and 17-year-old Mohammad Khaled Alian Issa were all targeted and killed by Israeli forces in two separate incidents in the occupied West Bank on July 23, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International – Palestine. Israeli authorities confiscated the bodies of Ahmad and Mohammad and have not released them to their families.
“As Israeli forces bomb and starve Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip, they are targeting children in the occupied West Bank with lethal force,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP. “Years of systemic impunity has created a situation where Israeli forces kill Palestinian children without limit or consequence.”
Mohammad Khaled Hassan Mabrouk, 15, was shot by an Israeli soldier around 6 p.m. on July 23 near the southern entrance of Al-Ain refugee camp, north of Nablus, in the northern occupied West Bank, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International – Palestine. Mohammad was standing in front of Al-Ain Camp, where his family’s home was located, when two Israeli military vehicles belonging to the Israeli Border Guard forces, coming from the west of Nablus city, stormed the camp and took up positions in front of the entrance to the camp.
Eight Israeli soldiers got out of the vehicles and stopped in the middle of the main street at the camp entrance, and started firing tear gas canisters. Mohammad fled from the area and looked for safety toward the camp when an Israeli soldier deliberately targeted and shot Mohammad from a distance of about 100 meters (328 feet) away.
Mohammad sustained a gunshot wound to the left thigh and remained lying on the ground bleeding for around five minutes. When a young man tried to lift him, they were targeted again with around three bullets. An ambulance managed to approach Mohammad and transported him to An-Najah National University Hospital, where he underwent multiple surgeries to stop the bleeding, and was placed in the ICU until he succumbed to his wounds around 5:30 a.m. on July 25.
Ahmad Ali Asaad Salah, 15, and Mohammad Khaled Alian Issa, 17, were shot and killed by Israeli forces around 11:40 p.m. near the separation wall between the Palestinian town of Al-Khader and the bypass road 60, Jerusalem-Hebron Street, west of Bethlehem in the southern occupied West Bank, according to documentation collected by DCIP. Ahmad and Mohammad allegedly threw Molotov cocktails toward the bypass road.
An Israeli force was present around the area when they spotted the two children and opened fire on them, killing them immediately. The force prevented ambulance crews from approaching the children, and the force transferred the two bodies to the Al-Nashash Tower, the southern entrance to Bethlehem, and refused to release their bodies to the Red Crescent, nor their families.
Since Israeli authorities confiscated Ahmad and Mohammad’s bodies, DCIP is not able to verify the location or number of bullet wounds that they sustained.
Israeli forces have killed 38 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank in 2025, according to documentation collected by DCIP.
212 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank since October 7, 2023, according to documentation collected by DCIP.
Israeli forces have withheld the bodies of at least 53 Palestinian children since June 2016, according to documentation collected by DCIP. Six of the children’s bodies have since been released to their families, while 47 Palestinian children’s bodies remain withheld by Israeli authorities. Israel’s practice of withholding Palestinian bodies is a form of collective punishment, a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, and deprives Palestinian families of the ability to lay their children to rest.
In September 2019, the Israeli Supreme Court approved the practice of confiscating human remains after several legal challenges to the policy. On November 27, 2019, Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett ordered all bodies of Palestinians alleged to have attacked Israeli citizens or soldiers to be withheld and not returned to their families. Israel is the only country in the world with such a policy of confiscating human remains, according to Adalah.
- Photo: 15-year-old Mohammad Khaled Hassan Mabrouk (left), 15-year-old Ahmad Ali Asaad Salah (center), and 17-year-old Mohammad Khaled Alian Issa (right), were killed by Israeli forces last week. (Photos: Courtesy of the families)