Video Footage Indicates Killed Palestinian Youths Posed No Threat
The footage was caught by a CCTV camera installed above a nearby office and shows the deaths of Nadeem Nawara, 17, and Mohammad Salameh, 16, who were both shot through the chest in separate incidents just over an hour apart.
The two boys are seen walking near the building, apparently unarmed, with the second teenager killed while walking away from positions occupied by Israeli security forces outside Ofer prison in the West Bank.
The footage appears to be supported by Palestinian hospital reports seen by the Guardian and witness accounts of the shooting, including that of Mohamed al-Azi, a 15-year-old who survived being shot through the chest.
The composite picture presented by the evidence points to the conclusion that the two teenagers were between 200 and 250 meters from the soldiers who shot them – allegedly with live fire – and were not involved in throwing stones at the time of their deaths. The latter issue is critical because under the Israeli military's Open Fire Regulations, live rounds are only allowed to be used against stone throwers when they pose an imminent danger to life.
In the first incident caught on camera, a figure with a backpack walks across a street towards a group of others standing next to a wall before stumbling and slumping to the ground. An hour and 13 minutes later, another figure crosses the street from the opposite direction and also falls to the ground. Journalists who were at the scene last Thursday confirmed the video showed the fatal shootings.
The Israeli military claimed the footage had been edited in a "biased and tendentious way" and did not show the violence its soldiers encountered.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting last week Israel's police spokesman and IDF officials insisted preliminary investigations had established that no live fire had taken place and that the boys were killed during a serious riot.
A statement released by the Israeli military on Tuesday largely reiterated that account.
"Security forces in the area used riot dispersal means to restore calm," it said. "Later in the day, it was reported that two Palestinians died as a result of these security operations. A preliminary investigation determined that live fire was not used by security forces. The incident remains under investigation. The video clip which was released today has been edited, and doesn't document the full extent of the event, nor does it reflect the violent nature of the riot."
Speaking to the Guardian after the Israeli military opened a limited new investigation into the shootings, a senior spokesman said: "After the reports that two people had been killed we had senior military on the ground whose preliminary report concluded that there had been no live fire. Clearly – with the new claims – there are questions to be cleared up."
The shootings, during a protest on Nakba Day last week, were already controversial and had been raised by the US secretary of state, John Kerry, in a statement.
The new details contradict the Israeli police and military account that no live rounds were fired during the demonstration and that the killings took place during a riot of some 200 youths who posed a threat to the lives of security forces.
"The images captured on video show unlawful killings where neither child presented a direct and immediate threat to life at the time of their shooting," said Rifat Kassis, executive director of Defence for Children International-Palestine, which distributed the video.
Source: The Guardian
