Family Demands Answers After NJ Teen Fatally Shot In West Bank

SADDLE BROOK, NJ — The family of a 14-year-old New Jersey boy is demanding answers after Israeli forces fatally shot the teen in the West Bank on Sunday, according to officials and multiple reports.

In a statement, Gov. Phil Murphy confirmed the death of 14-year-old Amer Mohammad Saada Rabee, a U.S. citizen and New Jersey native who grew up in Saddle Brook. Amer was shot along with two other teenagers by an Israeli settler at the entrance to Turmus Ayya, officials told Reuters.

The Israeli army pronounced Amer dead after detaining him, officials said. The two other teens — a 14-year-old and a 15-year-old who are both U.S. citizens — were injured in the shooting.

According to a New York Times report, Amer moved with his family to the West Bank around 2013. Since then, the family has divided its time between the West Bank and New Jersey.

“I am saddened by the death of Amer Mohammed Saada Rabee, who was killed in the West Bank on Sunday,” Murphy said in a statement. "The tragic loss of life underscores that the current course of conflict is continuing to take too great a toll on too many people."

An Israeli statement labeled the teens as "terrorists" and accused them of throwing rocks toward a highway, “thus endangering civilians driving," NJ Advance Media reported.

“The soldiers opened fire toward the terrorists who were endangering civilians, eliminating one terrorist and hitting two additional terrorists," the statement said.

Amer's family and members of North Jersey’s Palestinian community held a news conference Tuesday in Clifton, where they called on the U.S. government to investigate the shooting.

"We cannot let this horrific crime be swept under the rug," said Rania Mustafa, executive director of the Palestinian American Community Center in Clifton, according to the Times. "Our stories are consistently ignored. Our people are consistently dehumanized. Our deaths are repeatedly ignored."

In a statement shared on social media, New Jersey Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman called Amer's death "an atrocity."

"How can the Israeli military possibly justify shooting and killing an American teenager in cold blood?" Coleman said. "The U.S. must step in and stop this madness."

U.S. Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) also decried the teen's death, saying the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians has had a "heavy impact on New Jersey."

"Amer should be the last child killed in this conflict and Edan must be returned home," Kim said, referencing 21-year-old Edan Alexander, an Israeli-American soldier who grew up in the U.S. and is one of 59 hostages still in Gaza. "A further spiral of violence is not the path, and it's one the United States should work to ensure is stopped immediately."