A video of an incident near the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip on Friday appears to show an Israeli soldier shooting a young Palestinian close to Jabalia in northern Gaza while he is running away from the border fence.
The footage shows the young Palestinian, simultaneously carrying a tire and running away from the border fence before falling to the ground after seemingly being shot.
A senior official in the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza identified to The Jerusalem Post the young Palestinian seen in the video as 18-year-old Abdel Fattah Abed al-Nabi and said he died shortly after being hit by gunfire.
Young man appears to be shot in the back as he runs away from Israeli positions carrying a tyre (21 seconds in) pic.twitter.com/80JagMhYHz
— Raf Sanchez (@rafsanchez) March 31, 2018
The incident occurred at a major protest on the Gazan side of the border between Israel and the small coastal enclave in support of the return of Palestinian refugees to their former homes in Israel.
The IDF described the protest as “a violent riot,” asserting that protesters threw stones and molotov cocktails at Israeli security forces as well as opened fire on them, attempted to infiltrate Israel’s borders and set rubber tires afire. Pictures and videos appear to show that some protesters took part in violent actions.
In the past week, several IDF officials called on Palestinians not to approach the border fence, warning them that they would be putting themselves in danger.
However, the video of the young Palestinian shows that he was dozens of meters away from the border fence, which can be seen in the distance. It also does not show him undertaking any of the violent actions the IDF said protesters had been carrying out.
It is unclear what he was doing in the time that proceeds the video footage.
When asked about the video and if the young Palestinian in it posed a threat, the IDF responded with the following statement:
“The Hamas terror organization has published several videos, some of which only depict parts of incidents while others are edited or completely fabricated.
During yesterday’s violent riots and terror attacks, IDF troops faced gunshots, infiltration attempts, damage to security infrastructure, firebombs, rocks, and rolling burning tires. The IDF operated in strict accordance with the Rules of Engagement, firing only when necessary and avoiding civilians strategically placed by Hamas in harm’s way. IDF operational activity prevented the Hamas terror organization’s objective to harm security infrastructure and attempts to violate Israeli sovereignty. Don’t take Hamas’s propaganda as fact. The IDF will continue operating in order to ensure Israeli sovereignty is not breached and to protect Israeli civilians. The participants of the violent riots are situating themselves in a dangerous area, thus putting themselves in harm’s way.”
An IDF spokesman declined to comment on any follow up questions to the military’s statement including on whether the video of the young Palestinian was edited or fabricated.
On Friday, the IDF found weapons near the security fence, foiling an attack on IDF positions nearby.
According to Ashraf al-Qidra, a spokesman for the Hamas-run Health Ministry, 15 Palestinians were killed while participating in the protest on Friday.
On Saturday, the Ezzeldin Kassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, announced that five of the deceased Palestinians were Kassam members. Abed al-Nabi, the young Palestinian, was not listed as one of the dead Kassam members.
Article source: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/More-than-100-artists-pen-letter-backing-Lordes-Israel-gig-cancellation-532950
No comments:
Post a Comment