An Israeli soldier shooting at close range killed Rayan Abu M’alla (Saba’neh), 16, who posed no danger to anyone

On Saturday, 20 December 2025, in the early evening, several military jeeps raided the center of the town of Qabatiyah in Jenin District. Shortly before 7:00 P.M., one of the jeeps drove back and forth through the streets of the a-Saba’neh neighborhood near the town center, repeatedly honking its horn and disturbing residents. A group of youths followed the jeep, shouting and whistling, and some of them threw stones at it from afar.

In footage obtained by B’Tselem, the jeep is seen around 7:00 P.M. driving down the main street of the neighborhood, a-Saba’neh Street, near a Y-shaped junction where the street splits into two alleys. Two soldiers are positioned at the entrance to one alley, behind the corner of a house at the center of the junction, hidden from view for anyone coming from the other alley. One soldier is kneeling and aiming his gun into the other alley, and the second soldier is standing just behind him, by the wall. A third soldier is seen walking back close to the jeep, facing against the direction of travel, also aiming his gun at the same alley. The soldier disappears from the frame for a moment, but quickly returns to the junction, this time without the jeep. He bends down and hides behind a parked car, watching the alley. Apart from the three soldiers, no one else can be seen in the area, which appears quiet.

At this point, while the soldiers are lying in wait for anyone emerging from the other alley, 16-year-old Rayan Abu M’alla (Saba’neh) is seen walking slowly down the alley towards them, apparently without noticing them. It is clearly visible in the footage that Abu M’alla is not holding anything and poses no threat to the soldiers. Nevertheless, when he is two meters at most from the soldiers, the soldier kneeling on the ground immediately fires a volley of shots at him, and he falls to the ground.

Abu M’alla was left lying on the ground for about 20 minutes. At that point, the soldiers covered his body with a sheet, and a few minutes later loaded him into an armored military vehicle that arrived. At 7:30 P.M., about half an hour after the incident began, the soldiers drove away in two jeeps, taking Abu M’alla with them. Later that evening, the family was informed he had died. Israel has been holding his body since.

From the moment of the shooting until the soldiers left, Abu M’alla lay on his back without moving for at least half an hour, with none of the soldiers attempting to administer first aid. The soldiers also prevented a medical team who arrived in a Palestinian ambulance from giving him first aid. Abu M’alla’s parents, who saw the ambulance outside their home but did not know the injured person was their son, told B’Tselem they persuaded the team to try and go over again after they were blocked by the soldiers. The team tried again, and the soldiers aimed their guns at them and ordered them back. A paramedic who spoke with B’Tselem confirmed this account.

The military claimed that Abu M’alla had thrown a brick shortly beforehand and was holding a brick at the time he was shot, and that the shooting was carried out in response. However, the footage from the scene refutes this claim.

This appalling killing of a 16-year-old boy is not an isolated incident, but a direct result of the permissive open-fire policy in the West Bank. From October 2023 to the end of December 2025, Israel killed 1,024 Palestinians in the West Bank, including 222 minors. Under Israel’s apartheid regime, the lives of Palestinians continue to be treated as disposable.

Even when a killing is fully captured on camera and clearly violates the law, no one is held to account. The international community must do everything in its power to stop Israel’s crimes.

B’Tselem field researcher Abdulkarim Sadi collected the following testimonies.

Walid Saba’neh, 75, a father of eight from Qabatiyah recounted:

I own a grocery store in the a-Saba’neh neighborhood, in the western quarter of the town of Qabatiyah.

On Saturday, 20 December 2025, there was a military raid on the town. At around 7:00 P.M., while I was in my grocery store, one of the military jeeps arrived at the street that leads to our neighborhood, the a-Saba’neh neighborhood. I stayed sitting behind the table in the store and watched the jeep patrol back and forth along the street. The soldiers turned on a siren and honked to provoke and harass the residents. Every time the jeep drove past one of the alleys that branches off from the street, I heard boys shouting and whistling at it.

After the jeep drove back and forth several times, I saw it leave the street and drive north. 
Then, suddenly, I saw two soldiers arrive on foot from the south and hide behind one of the houses opposite the store, to the south. There’s an alley about five meters wide between the store and the corner of the house. I saw the two soldiers crouch down, probably so none of the young men could see them.

From where I was sitting, behind the counter, I could see the spot where the soldiers were hiding. They were about 10 meters away from me. But I couldn’t see the people walking along the alley from the direction of the Old City.

While I was watching the two soldiers, one of them fired about three to five shots. I was shocked and very scared, because the soldiers were so close to me. I stayed put, on the chair behind the counter, until another jeep arrived and more soldiers climbed out.

After the shooting, one of the soldiers closed the door to my store from the outside. I used the opportunity to lock it from inside, and then I went into my house through an inner door that connects with the store. I stayed in the house.

There were no real clashes taking place in the area at the time of the incident, just some shouting and whistling, and maybe one of the boys threw a stone at the military jeep as it drove by one of the alleys branching off from the street.

Testimony of K. L.:

On Saturday, 20 December 2025, at around 7:00 P.M., I was on the roof of a house overlooking the main street that leads to the a-Saba’neh neighborhood. I heard a military jeep honking and playing its siren to harass and provoke the residents.

I saw the jeep driving back and forth along the street, and the soldiers honked every time they passed the alleys that branch off from the main street and lead to the old part of the town. I heard kids and young men shouting and whistling every time the jeep passed the entrances to the alleys. Sometimes they also threw a stone at it.

After the jeep drove back and forth several times, I saw three soldiers get out of it, about 400 meters south of where I was. Two of them started walking right up against the walls of the house on the left side of the street. The third soldier walked by the jeep while it drove north and passed the alley leading to the Old City, close to Walid Saba’neh’s grocery store, about 100 meters away from where I was.

I saw the two soldiers hiding behind ‘Omar Saba’neh’s house, across from the grocery store. Then I realized they were waiting in ambush for the young men and kids, and I tried to warn them. I called out to them: “Watch out! The soldiers are hiding behind the corner of ‘Omar a-Saba’neh’s house on the main street.”

I stayed on the roof and followed what was happening. At one point, I saw a kid coming from above, from the direction of the old part of the town, and then a soldier shot about three to five bullets at him. I estimate he shot the kid from two meters away at most, because I saw the kid reach the corner the soldiers were hiding behind.

The kid fell on his back, and after a few moments, the third soldier came from the north and joined the other two. Afterwards, the military jeep the soldiers had gotten out of earlier arrived, along with more soldiers in a Namer APC. The soldiers stayed at the scene for about 30 minutes, and all that time, they prevented ambulances from reaching the kid. In the end, they laid his body on a stretcher, put it into the military jeep and left the area.

The whole time I was on the roof, the young men didn’t clash with the soldiers. They only shouted, whistled and called out to them. From time to time, they threw stones from far away, from the end of the alley, so they didn’t even reach the street where the military jeeps were driving.

After the forces left, I went to the scene of the incident and saw a bloodstain where the kid fell after he was shot. I know him well because he lives in our neighborhood. His name is Rayan Abu M’alla (Saba’neh).

Rayan’s mother, Nayfeh Saba’neh, 46, a mother of six, spoke about losing her son:

On Saturday, 20 December 2025, at around 3:00 P.M., I went to visit the grave of my eldest son, Nur a-Din, who was shot dead by the Israeli military in 2015. Two of my children came with me – Nur a-Din, who was born after his brother was killed and was named after him, and Jadallah. My son Rayan stayed home to study for an exam he was supposed to have on Sunday.

On the way home, I did some shopping. Rayan came down and helped me carry the groceries up to our apartment on the second floor.

We had lunch, and then he made himself a cup of instant coffee and went into his room. I thought he stayed there until the evening. At around 6:45 P.M., my husband came back from his work in construction, and just then we learned on social media that the military was raiding neighborhoods in the town. I went into Rayan’s room and found his cup of instant coffee, still full, on the bedside table. He hadn’t drunk it and wasn’t even at home. I thought maybe he’d gone to one of the grocery stores in the neighborhood to get a snack.

I sent Rayan a WhatsApp message to warn him that military forces were raiding neighborhoods in the town, but he didn’t answer. I tried calling him, and then I found his phone was lying on his bed. My husband called a relative of ours, and he said he’d seen Rayan in the neighborhood, walking towards the grocery store, and that when the military jeeps arrived, he had looked surprised and may have headed towards the old part of the town so he wouldn’t run into them.

At around 7:00 P.M., we saw a Palestinian ambulance stop by our house. I went outside with my husband to ask the ambulance team what happened. They told us a young man had been shot in the leg near Walid Saba’neh’s grocery store, which is about 250 meters from our house, and that soldiers were blocking them from getting to him. I urged them to try again and told them I would walk over there. I didn’t know the young man injured was our Rayan. I walked with the paramedic, but when we reached the soldiers, they pointed their guns at us, shone laser flashlights at us and ordered us to turn back.

At that stage, I became very anxious that the injured person was Rayan, even though he’d never been arrested and never got into any kind of trouble.

We waited with the ambulance team and other neighborhood residents for about half an hour, at a junction about 200 meters from the scene of the incident, which the soldiers had surrounded and blocked off. Then the military jeeps started heading out, and we went to the spot where the wounded person had been, but all we found was a small bloodstain. We were afraid, but we didn’t know it was actually Rayan.

While we were there, posts started appearing on social media that a young man called Rayan Abu M’alla (Saba’neh) had been shot by soldiers and wounded, and that the military had taken him away to treat him. Soon afterwards, relatives called my husband and told him that Rayan was dead and the military was holding his body. I had feared that, but still the news struck me like a bolt from the blue. I’ve lost two of my sons to shooting by soldiers: Nur a-Din, who was killed in December 2015, and now, in the same month a decade later, Rayan.

What’s most important to me right now is to get my son Rayan’s body back, so we can bury him by his brother and I can visit his grave whenever I wish.

Rayan left a huge void behind. He took care of his younger siblings and always tried to keep things happy at home and make everyone laugh. His younger brothers, Nur a-Din and Jadallah, ask me when he will come back, and I have no answer.

M., a paramedic at the Qabatiyah municipality, recounted:

On Saturday evening, 20 December 2025, at 7:02 P.M., I received a phone call from a resident telling me Israeli soldiers had shot a young man in the a-Saba’neh neighborhood in Qabatiyah. I drove there right away in an ambulance, along with my brother K. who is also a paramedic. We didn’t know who had been shot.

We reached the Saba’neh family’s diwan (a hall for gatherings) and headed towards the place where the injured young man was, but the Israeli soldiers wouldn’t let us go further. They pointed their guns at us, and we were forced to back up and stop by the diwan. It was 7:07 P.M. We waited about 10-15 minutes and then tried again to reach the injured guy. We ran into Rayan’s mother and she tried to walk by the ambulance, but after she went about 7 to 10 steps, when we were about 200 meters away from the soldiers, I asked her to go back because they had turned their guns on us and shone laser flashlights at us. She went back, and I moved forward a bit more, until they forced me back too.

I stopped the ambulance near the diwan again and several civilians gathered around it, including Rayan’s parents. At that stage, they didn’t know yet that he was the one shot.

We waited there for about 35 minutes, and then I saw the military vehicles driving away. After that, we managed to get to the spot but didn’t find the injured person there. I saw only a small bloodstain and a small stone next to it. A few minutes later, we found out from social media and from the Palestinian DCO that Rayan Abu M’alla had been shot dead by soldiers and they had taken his body.

The Israeli military raids the town of Qabatiyah again and again, blocks ambulance teams from reaching people shot and prevents us from doing our job.

* B'Tselem published the video above on 29 Dec. 2025. The full investigation was published on 4 Feb. 2026.