This is a photo of Mustafa Ali Bani Odeh, an 8 year old Palestinian child, after he witnessed Israeli soldiers kill his mother, his father, and two of his brothers, aged 7 and 5.
This took place in the occupied West Bank, land Israel has no right to patrol.
The NYT account of the shooting is worth sharing:
"Ali Bani Odeh’s wife and four young boys hadn’t seen him in a month and a half when he came home to Tammun, in the West Bank, from his construction job in Israel late on Friday to spend the last few days of Ramadan with his family.
On Saturday night, the boys persuaded him to take them out for a drive. Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan, was coming, so there were new clothes to buy. The day’s fast had been broken, so there were sweets to be had, too.
They picked up fried doughnut holes in Tubas, saving them for later, but the clothing shop they went to in Nablus was closed. It was already past midnight, so they headed back to Tammun: Khaled, 11, the oldest, in the back with Mustafa, 8, and Muhammad, 5. Othman, 6, blind and incapable of walking or feeding himself, was in his mother’s lap in front.
As they rounded a corner slowly, a few minutes from home, young Khaled and Mustafa recounted on Sunday, their mother, Waad, 35, asked her husband to pull over and take Othman from her so she could get something from her bag on the floor. Suddenly, the boys said, they saw laser pointers shining on their family from every direction, heard their mother scream, heard their father say “God is great” — and then heard a deafening fusillade of gunfire."
Why did the soldiers kill this family? They say they "sensed danger".
Imagine the strength it will take for Mustafa to resist turning to violence against the country that killed his parents and his brothers. By killing so many innocent men, women, and children, Israel is ensuring the cycle of violence continues and making everyone, everywhere less safe.
The grief of Mustafa is unimaginable. But his story is not unique. Tends of thousands of children killed. Many more have had their parents, brothers, sisters, family, friends killed by Israeli snipers or Israeli bombs.
We cannot let this continue.
