Israeli police accused of ‘executing’ Palestinian in West Bank according to Al-Jazeera (Update: BBC also questions Israeli Police account)

[mastermind]

Israeli officer kills Palestinian assailant in West Bank, police say

An Israeli officer shot dead a Palestinian assailant in the occupied West Bank on Friday, border police said, an incident which the Palestinians denounced as an execution.

www.reuters.com

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Dec 2 (Reuters) - An Israeli officer shot dead a Palestinian assailant in the occupied West Bank on Friday, border police said, an incident which the Palestinians denounced as an execution.

The man had stabbed and lightly wounded a border policeman after which another officer overpowered him. The man then fought with the officer and tried to snatch his rifle before the officer shot him dead, border police said in a statement.

The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed his death. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said it was tantamount to an execution meant to escalate already spiralling violence in the territory, which Palestinians seek for a state.

On Twitter, the United Nations Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland said he was horrified by the killing and the European Union said it was concerned by what appears to be excessive use of force by Israeli security forces toward Palestinians.

Border police distributed a photo of a knife on the ground and another of a border policeman with what appears to be a stabbing wound to his head.

A video circulating on social media showed an officer holding a man in a head-lock by a road as two other men try to wrestle him away. The man then appears to strike the officer and attempt to take hold of his rifle before the officer pulls out a handgun and shoots him several times as he falls to the ground.

The video, taken from a distance as vehicles cross the frame, could not be independently verified by Reuters. It does not show what had transpired prior and whether the man had been holding a knife or any other weapon before it was filmed.

A border police spokesman did not respond to Reuters requests for comment on the incident, which took place close to the city of Nablus.

The city, along with nearby Jenin, has seen intensified and often fatal Israeli military operations, since a spate of deadly Palestinian street attacks in Israeli cities in March.

The worst violence in the West Bank in years has deepened diplomatic stagnation since U.S.-brokered peace talks aimed at establishing a Palestinian state there, in Gaza and in East Jerusalem, collapsed in 2014.

The incoming Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu looks likely to include far-right politicians who oppose Palestinian statehood and want the Palestinian Authority (PA), which wields limited self-rule in the West Bank, dismantled.

 

[88m3]

misleading thread title

 

[mastermind]

misleading thread title

No it's not.

editL they changed the headline.

 

[88m3]

No it's not.

editL they changed the headline.

excuse me?

 

[Payday23]

Sounds like the guy deserved it.

 

[mastermind]

excuse me?

Yeah. I read the Al Jazeera account and Reuters. I thought the Reuters one said that, but I misread it.

Sounds like the guy deserved it.

Outside of getting put in a chokehold after a car accident, and allegedly shot at by the person who he got in the accident with.

‘Executed in cold blood’: Palestinians react to public killing

Palestinian activists and social media users called for a response against Israeli crimes and killings against them.

www.aljazeera.com

 

[Payday23]

Yeah. I read the Al Jazeera account and Reuters. I thought the Reuters one said that, but I misread it.


Outside of getting put in a chokehold after a car accident, and allegedly shot at by the person who he got in the accident with.

‘Executed in cold blood’: Palestinians react to public killing

Palestinian activists and social media users called for a response against Israeli crimes and killings against them.

www.aljazeera.com

Wait, the article said he stabbed someone. He get in the wreck with the security personnel,?

 

[mastermind]

Wait, the article said he stabbed someone. He get in the wreck with the security personnel,?

the article says he stabbed an officer

But this was after the car wreck

The video says something els.

 

[voiture]

"The man had stabbed and lightly wounded a border policeman"

Suicide by cop. How is this a story? How many people stab a cop and survive?

 

[mastermind]

"The man had stabbed and lightly wounded a border policeman"

Suicide by cop. How is this a story? How many people stab a cop and survive?

Witnesses challenge Israeli policeman's killing of Palestinian

Video shows the man shot by a policeman at close range, and bystanders say it was unjustified.

www.bbc.com

By Tom Bateman
BBC Middle East Correspondent

An eyewitness to the killing of a Palestinian by Israeli forces has told the BBC he believes the man was shot simply for punching a policeman.
Ammar Mefleh was killed at close range in the occupied West Bank last Friday.
He is the 10th Palestinian shot dead by Israeli troops in the space of a week.

Video of the shooting drew a massive reaction online and sparked a diplomatic rebuke by Israel to a top UN official who said he was "horrified" at the killing.

Israeli officials praised the officer involved saying he responded after the Palestinian stabbed a policeman in the face, and his actions prevented a "major terror attack".

Palestinian leaders described it as an execution "in cold blood".

Mr Mefleh, 22, was killed in the Palestinian town of Huwara, which lies on a main road frequently used by Israeli settlers and has been the scene of growing violence in recent months.

Incident filmed​

This year in the West Bank more than 150 Palestinians have been killed, nearly all by Israeli forces. The dead include unarmed civilians, militant gunmen and armed attackers.

Meanwhile a series of Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis, as well as militant gunfire at troops during arrest raids, have killed more than 30 people including civilians, police and soldiers.

The footage from Friday, shared extensively online, was rare in capturing in detail part of the event that led up to the shooting. The last 13 seconds are caught in a second video from another angle.

In the recording, the Israeli officer is seen holding Mr Mefleh in a headlock as the pair struggle. Two other Palestinians are in the melee at first, but then step back.

IMAGE SOURCE,HUWARA RESIDENT
Image caption,
Footage showed Ammar Mefleh trying to grab the police officer's weapon during the struggle

After Mr Mefleh struggles out of the headlock, he tries to grab the policeman's rifle. As they wrestle over the weapon the officer takes a hand off it - first to try to hit the Palestinian, who strikes him back - then to reach for his pistol.

Mr Mefleh for a split second has hold of the rifle but almost instantly throws it down or lets go of it, recoiling as he sees the officer raise his pistol. The policeman shoots him instantly, four times.

Following his killing, a popular Israeli news website reported that the officer had "eliminated the terrorist". The footage was repeatedly circulated on Palestinian social media with people appalled at the killing.

The UN's envoy to the region, Tor Wennesland, tweeted that he was "horrified by today's killing of a Palestinian man, Ammar Mefleh, during a scuffle with an Israeli soldier," calling for those responsible to be held accountable.

A spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry, Emmanuel Nahshon, tweeted in response that Mr Wennesland's reaction was a "total distortion of reality".
"The incident is a terror attack, in which an Israeli policeman was stabbed in his face and the life of another officer was threatened and consequently he shot his assailant," Mr Nahshon added.

"This is NOT a 'scuffle' - this is a terror attack!"

Disputed account​

The row drew increased focus on the precise events leading up to his killing.

On Friday evening, Israeli police said the incident began when a Palestinian armed with a knife picked up a rock and tried to break into an Israeli couple's car. They said the driver, an off-duty soldier, shot the man leaving him injured - thought to be from the bullet or shrapnel glancing his head.

Police said the wounded Palestinian then approached two border police officers on patrol in their vehicle, stabbing one in the face, while the other - the policeman later seen in the video - got out and chased him, leading up to the events captured in the footage and the fatal shooting.



The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter

Police published an image of an officer with his identity obscured with a wound to his face and a close-up picture of a knife lying on a roadside (although one Israeli media report cited the police investigation as saying the knife fell into the police car after the officer was stabbed).

 

[mastermind]

Over the weekend police released footage of the officer who killed Mr Mefleh describing the events: "Me and my team were on a mission patrolling the road [when] the terrorist came and stabbed my driver in the face. Immediately I knew it was a terrorist attack. I got out of the vehicle and went after the terrorist," said the policeman who is not identified.

"I identified the terrorist and the Israeli civilian vehicle he tried to infiltrate while armed with a knife, and the terrorist immediately confronted me violently," he said in a further statement.

"[He] tried to steal my weapon. I knew that if he took my weapon there would be a more significant terrorist attack and I took out my pistol. I succeeded in pulling out my gun and shot the terrorist until he was neutralised," he added.

However, the accounts of four eyewitnesses who spoke to the BBC in Huwara did not match the police version of events.

One said the incident appeared to begin with a confrontation in the street, possibly connected to a road accident that was blocking traffic.

"I was standing over there next to the butchers," said Nader Allan, who had just left a nearby wedding.

"A settler's car stopped. I'm not sure if he hit the [Palestinian] guy's car, or if the guy was walking in the street. They started yelling at each other and I heard a shot. The settler shot the guy in the face. He was bleeding and he fell on the floor," he said.

Like the other eyewitnesses, Mr Allan said this was the moment the Israeli police officer arrived. A short video taken by one witness shows an officer - who looks similar to the one in the fatal shooting footage - giving directions on a police radio and standing close to Mr Mefleh who is lying with a bloodied face in the street, as passers-by gather.

Another photo shows a similar scene, which appears fairly calm as locals speak on their phones. A witness said people tried to give Mr Mefleh first aid.

IMAGE SOURCE,HUWARA RESIDENT
Image caption,
Eyewitnesses say Mr Mefleh had been attacked prior to the shooting incident

Another witness, Mahmoud Abed, who works in a kebab restaurant, said he also rushed out when he heard Mr Mefleh being shot at by the Israeli driver.
"We found a guy on the floor with his face covered in blood. A policeman came from far away. He looked at him and kicked him, then the policeman said something on the radio," he said.

Both Mr Abed and Mr Allan say the wounded Palestinian then got up and confronted the Israeli officer, trying to hit him. They say this is what triggered the confrontation that led to the officer getting him in a headlock, before fatally shooting him.
Another eyewitness, Bahaa Odeh who runs an ice-cream shop, said he heard a commotion and came out to see the policeman holding Mr Mefleh in a headlock, and then saw him kill him.

"Because of how upset I got from what I saw I started shouting at the soldier telling him 'you're despicable… there was no danger to your life, why did you kill him?'

"I told him 'you are a coward… you killed him because he punched you. He has a right to defend himself,'" said Mr Odeh.

Knife claims​

As the sense of anger grew in response to Mr Mefleh's killing, confrontations later broke out between Israeli forces and residents. Mr Odeh was hit by a rubber bullet, leaving him with wounds to his chest and arm.

Image caption,
Bahaa Odeh shows his injury from being hit by a rubber bullet

Asked whether Mr Mefleh had a knife, all four witnesses insisted he did not. No weapon is visible in Mr Mefleh's hands or anywhere in the photo of him lying wounded after being shot by the Israeli driver.

To add to the discrepancy over the sequence of events, on Saturday Israeli police were quoted as saying they were "97% certain" that it was Mr Mefleh who had stabbed the police officer in the car; whereas on Friday their statement contained no doubt over this.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz cited police as saying they had longer footage of the incident from several different cameras which "strengthens the assessment" that the Palestinian man who was killed was the one who stabbed the policeman.

Israeli police did not respond to questions about the eyewitness accounts compared to those of the officers.