QABATIYA, West Bank: The Israeli military said it was reviewing an incident in the occupied West Bank in which soldiers shot dead a 16-year-old Palestinian who they said had thrown a brick at them, after CCTV footage appeared to show he was not doing so when shot.
Asked about the video, an Israeli military spokesperson said: “A Palestinian suspected of hurling a block at IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) soldiers was shot. The incident is under review.”
Palestinian officials said that Rayyan Mohammad Abu Mualla was shot and killed on Saturday in the northern West Bank town of Qabatiya, during a raid by the Israeli military.
The Israeli military initially said on Saturday: “During IDF operational activity in the area of Qabatiya, a terrorist hurled a block toward the soldiers, who responded with fire and eliminated the terrorist.”
CCTV footage showed two Israeli soldiers — one crouching and one standing on a lit street corner at dark — and a third soldier appearing to take position in an adjacent street leading to the same corner.
A person is then seen walking down a street and as he reaches the corner, he is shot by the crouching soldier and falls back and onto the ground.
The video does not appear to show him throwing a block or holding one.
The video starts six minutes before the shooting, showing the streets empty and then a military vehicle driving down the street as one person peers off a rooftop and another through a window as the soldiers arrive at the scene.
The person who is shot appears in the video three seconds before the shooting, and it is not possible to ascertain what the person was doing or holding before he is seen.
The footage was obtained from the owner of the security camera and its location and date were verified by Reuters. The incident is partly obscured because of the angle of the camera and the low light.
Abu Mualla’s mother, Ibtihal, said that the Israeli military had taken his body away.
CCTV footage from around 22 minutes after the shooting appears to show his body being placed by soldiers on a stretcher and driven away in a military vehicle 11 minutes after that, 33 minutes after the shooting.
“They could have shot him in the leg, my son didn’t throw anything toward them,” said Mualla. “I want to bury my son with dignity,” she said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Since January, when Israel began stepping up raids in the northern West Bank, 53 Palestinian minors have been killed by Israeli forces, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Israel says the raids are meant to tackle Palestinian militants and thwart attacks against Israelis.
Israeli military ‘examining’ killing of Palestinian teen
https://arab.news/jw9ej
Israeli military ‘examining’ killing of Palestinian teen
- Rayyan Mohammad Abu Mualla was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers on Saturday in the northern West Bank town of Qabatiya
- CCTV footage appears to disprove Israel's initial claim that the victim had thrown a rock
Syria says detained senior Daesh jihadist in Damascus
- The arrest came less than two weeks after a December 13 attack killed two US soldiers
DAMASCUS: Syrian authorities have arrested a senior Daesh group official in the Damascus region in a joint operation with a US-led international coalition, a security official said on Wednesday.
Taha Al-Zoubi, also known as Abu Omar Tabiya, an Daesh leader in Damascus, was detained with several of his men, General Ahmad Al-Dalati was reported as saying by state news agency SANA.
The arrest came less than two weeks after a December 13 attack killed two US soldiers and a US civilian that Washington said was carried out by a lone Daesh gunman in central Syria’s Palmyra.
“Our specialized units, in cooperation with the General Intelligence Directorate and and International Coalition forces, carried out a precise security operation targeting” an Daesh hideout, Dalati said.
On December 20, a Syria monitor said that five Daesh members were killed in US strikes in retaliation for the December 13 attack.
It was the first such incident since the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December last year, and Syrian authorities said the perpetrator was a security forces member who was due to be fired for his “extremist Islamist ideas.”
