In the predawn hours of May 28, Israeli soldiers operating in the village of Jit near Qalqilya in the West Bank shot dead a Palestinian man, Jassem al-Siddeh.
According to the military, soldiers had opened fire and “neutralized a terrorist” after he “tried to attack the force with a sharp object and posed a threat.”
But al-Siddeh’s family contends that the 19-year-old was shot dead as he slept in his bed. Relatives told The Times of Israel that after the shooting, soldiers argued among themselves, indicating that they themselves did not understand why one of them had opened fire.
Jassem’s brother Darwish al-Siddeh told The Times of Israel that the two of them and their father were the only ones at home when five soldiers came through the door at around 1:35 a.m.
“They entered, didn’t speak to anyone, and went straight into the room where Jassem was sleeping,” he said. “I heard heavy gunfire. It happened in minutes.”
From the next room, al-Siddeh said, he heard the soldiers begin arguing following the gunfire.
“One of them said in Hebrew, ‘What are you doing, are you crazy?’ I didn’t hear Jassem’s voice before the shooting – not a word. He was still asleep,” Darwish said.
Traces of blood on and beneath the bed where Jassem al-Siddeh was sleeping before an incident in which he was shot dead, taken May 28, 2025, according to al-Siddeh’s family. (courtesy)
According to the Haaretz daily, al-Siddeh’s father Ibrahim also said he recalled hearing soldiers call the alleged shooter “crazy” as they ordered Ibrahim into an adjacent apartment, which belonged to another son.
Darwish said that after the shooting, the soldiers told the family to call an ambulance but did not allow them to enter the room where Jassem had been shot.
Jassem al-Sadeh, 19, from the Palestinian village of Jit in the western West Bank, who was shot dead by soldiers on May 28, 2025. (Screenshot: Twitter, clause 27a of the copyright law)
The soldiers did not ask for names or identification papers, he said, only telling them, “Sit down, the ambulance will arrive in 10 minutes.”
While they waited for the ambulance, the soldiers asked about other residents in the apartment building. Al-Siddeh said he answered their questions about their neighbors’ identity, though the soldiers did not enter other homes or arrest anybody in the building.
It was unclear why soldiers had raided the building in the first place. Jassem had no criminal record and nobody in the family was known to have been wanted by Israeli authorities, Haaretz reported.
According to Darwish, soldiers eventually took Jassem outside to a military jeep and then handed him over to a Red Crescent ambulance, al-Siddeh said. He was taken to a Palestinian hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
According to the al-Siddeh family, they were told by the hospital that Jassem had been shot twice in the chest. They also saw a video of Jassem’s body showing him bleeding from the chest.
Once allowed back in the room where Jassem was shot, the family took pictures showing blood on and under his bed. Four bullet casings were found as well.
The Israel Defense Forces says the incident is under investigation.
It’s not (only) about you.
Supporting The Times of Israel isn’t a transaction for an online service, like subscribing to Netflix. The ToI Community is for people like you who care about a common good: ensuring that balanced, responsible coverage of Israel continues to be available to millions across the world, for free.
Sure, we’ll remove all ads from your page and you’ll unlock access to some excellent Community-only content. But your support gives you something more profound than that: the pride of joining something that really matters.
Join the Times of Israel Community
Join our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
You appreciate professional journalism
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
You clearly find our careful reporting valuable, during an ongoing war when facts are often distorted and news coverage of Israel often lacks context.
Your support is essential to continue our work. We want to continue delivering the professional journalism you value, even as the demands on our newsroom have grown dramatically since October 7.
So today, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. For as little as $6 a month you’ll become our partners while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
Join Our Community
Join Our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘272776440645465’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
