In a harrowing display of brutality, Palestinian Authority (PA) forces shot dead a three-year-old girl, Ronza Samara, and her sixteen-year-old brother, Razan Samara, in the city of Tubas on Sunday. The children were in a car with their father, Samer Samara, reportedly wanted by the Israeli army, when PA security forces opened fire. Samara was shot in the legs and arrested, while his children succumbed to their wounds, leaving the family devastated and the city in shock.
The killings sparked immediate protests outside the Turkish Hospital in Tubas, as residents voiced outrage at the systematic targeting of Palestinians under the guise of law enforcement. The Committee of Families of Political Detainees denounced the act as a “serious crime” reflective of a broader pattern in which Palestinians wanted by Israel are sacrificed, even at the cost of innocent lives. Hamas condemned the killings, labeling them a “new black mark” on the PA’s record, accusing it of oppressing Palestinians rather than safeguarding them.
This latest atrocity underscores a wider, deeply troubling collaboration between the PA and Israel, in which local forces act as enforcers of occupation policies rather than defenders of Palestinian rights. It also lays bare the deadly consequences of U.S. and Western-backed strategies, which empower and fund security apparatuses in the West Bank that have repeatedly violated both international law and fundamental Islamic principles. The United States, the United Kingdom, and other Western governments have continued to provide military and economic aid, effectively financing the killing of children and silencing dissent under the guise of “stability.”
The humanitarian toll is staggering. The killing of a toddler and a teenager by forces ostensibly meant to protect Palestinians represents a profound betrayal of Islamic values, which enshrine the sanctity of innocent life and forbid the shedding of blood without just cause. The PA’s compliance with Israel’s occupation apparatus transforms the West Bank into a landscape of fear, where even the most vulnerable the young and defenceless are not safe.
Regional actors, particularly Gulf states and governments that have normalized relations with Israel, also bear responsibility. Their silence or tacit approval emboldens the PA and Israel, creating a climate in which Palestinian blood is treated as expendable. Islamically, the failure to defend oppressed Muslims while facilitating or ignoring their massacre represents a grave moral failing.
Globally, the killings expose the hypocrisy of human rights rhetoric from Washington, London, and European capitals, who condemn some conflicts but consistently shield Israel and its local collaborators from accountability. Their financial and political backing allows the continuation of practices that constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, all while Palestinian families are left to mourn the preventable loss of their children.
The situation remains volatile, with tensions rising in Tubas and across the occupied West Bank. Palestinian communities are organizing protests, but without an end to external funding and international impunity for Israel and its allies, such atrocities are likely to continue. The world is being reminded that justice cannot coexist with the selective application of law and morality, and that the blood of innocent Palestinian children will remain on the hands of those who empower their killers.
