2023-12-16 07:08:01
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel announced Friday it was opening a military police investigation into the killing of two Palestinians in the West Bank after an Israeli human rights group released videos that appeared to show soldiers gunning down the two victims — one incapacitated man and another unarmed — during a military operation in a refugee camp in the territory.
Human rights group B’Tselem accused the army of carrying out a pair of “illegal executions.”
Security camera videos show two Israeli military vehicles chasing a group of Palestinians in the Faraa refugee camp in the northern West Bank. A man, who appears to be holding a red boat, is shot dead by soldiers. B’Tselem identified the victim as 25-year-old Rami Jundob.
The military jeep then approaches Jundob, who was bleeding on the ground, and is shot several times until he becomes motionless. The soldiers then approach a man identified by B’Tselem as Thaar Shahin, 36, who is taking cover under the hood of a car and shoot him at close range.
According to Btselem, Shahin died instantly while Jundob died the next day due to his injuries.
The Israeli army said its military police opened an investigation into the Dec. 8 shootings “on suspicion that shots were fired during the incident that were not in accordance with the law.” Their findings will be forwarded to the military prosecutor’s office in a sign that criminal charges could be filed.
Israel does not usually prosecute these types of cases and human rights groups say that soldiers are not usually punished even if wrongdoing is detected. In one high-profile case, an Israeli soldier was convicted of manslaughter and served a reduced nine-month prison sentence after shooting a badly wounded Palestinian as he lay on the ground in 2016.
The military recently opened an investigation into a soldier who shot and killed an Israeli man who had just gunned down Palestinian assailants at a bus stop in Jerusalem. The soldier apparently believed the Israeli was one of the attackers, even though he knelt on the ground, raised his hands and opened his shirt to show that he was not a threat. The shooting highlighted what critics call an epidemic of excessive use of force by Israeli soldiers, police and armed citizens against suspected Palestinian assailants.
In another incident on Friday, police said they suspended officers seen in a video beating a Palestinian photojournalist in East Jerusalem. The reporter was identified on social media as Mustafa Haruf, who works for the Turkish state news agency Anadolu.
In the video, one officer approaches Haruf and hits him with the butt of his gun while another pushes him against a car. One points his gun at the reporter and another throws him to the floor with a key. An agent kneels on his body and another repeatedly holds his head while he screams in pain.
Other officers nearby observe the scene and pull away the surprised witnesses.
“The Border Police command considers that the conduct of these agents is incompatible with the values of the force,” the police said in the statement in which they announced the suspension of the police officers and the opening of the investigation.
Both incidents come at a time of heightened tension in the West Bank and East Jerusalem due to the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, with Israelis on alert for possible new attacks. For years, Palestinians and human rights groups have accused Israeli forces of using excessive force and failing to demand accountability.
Since the start of the war, violence in the West Bank by Israeli forces and settlers has reached record levels. Since October 7, 287 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, making 2023 the deadliest year in the territory in 18 years.
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