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Photo:
Ammar Hamdi Mifleh, 22, from Osarin. Published by IMEMC News

22-year-old Ammar Mefleh who was killed on Friday by Israeli fire in the West Bank. Published by Haaretz

Soldiers at the scene with Palestinian Ammar Mefleh lying on the ground, on Friday. Published by Haaretz.

See also videos at IMEMC News Source link
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by IMEMC News
Dec 2, 2022

On Friday, an Israeli soldier killed a young Palestinian man after dropping him to the ground in Huwwara town, south of Nablus, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said the slain young man has been identified as Ammar Hamdi Mifleh, 22, from Osarin village, south of Nablus.

The Health Ministry said the soldiers prevented a Palestinian ambulance and medics from approaching the wounded young man, who succumbed to his wounds before the army took his corpse to an unknown destination.

A Video documenting the Israeli attack shows the soldier wrapping his arm around the young man’s neck and trying to drag him away before two Palestinians tried to intervene and de-escalate the situation.

The young man, who managed to get free from the soldier’s neck hold, wrestled with him for brief seconds before the soldier started removing his pistol out of its holster, his rifle fell in the process, and then he pushed the Palestinian, dropping him to the ground, before firing four rounds at him.

The soldier then approached the Palestinian again and before using his pistol to fire another round in a clear indication he executed the young man although he posed no threat, before picking up his rifle.

The soldier’s life was not in danger, especially since the young man was already on the ground, and he could have subdued him at gunpoint to allow other soldiers to arrest him.

Eyewitnesses said the scuffle was fast and brief and that when the Palestinians seemed to have grabbed the muzzle area of the rifle, he was trying to ensure it wasn’t pointed at him.

The Israeli army claimed a Palestinian “stabbed a police officer in Huwwara” before he was shot by the soldiers, adding that the officer suffered mild wounds.

The allegation cannot be substantiated, while eyewitnesses said the fatal shooting of the young man had nothing to do with the alleged stabbing,

According to the army, “the Palestinian attempted to snatch the weapon from the soldier before his rifle fell” however, even that scenario does not justify firing four life rounds at the Palestinian who was already on the ground and was unarmed.

The young man’s execution led to massive protests in Huwwara before the soldiers shot a young man with a rubber-coated steel bullet and caused dozens to suffer the effects of tear gas inhalation.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates denounced the execution of the young man and described it as “a cold-blooded murder committed by a racist Israeli occupation soldier encouraged by the extremist political and military leadership in Israel.”

It added that Israel’s policies allowing soldiers to use live fire against unarmed Palestinians are all part of the political incitement, hatred, and racism of the Israeli political and military leaderships and the illegal paramilitary colonizers who became a second army occupying Palestine.

The Ministry called on the International Criminal Court and the International Community to end their deadly silence, prosecute the war criminals, and end this illegal, criminal colonialist occupation of Palestine and its seriously escalating crimes.
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Palestinians Decry 'Execution' After Contested Israeli Killing in West Bank

Eyewitnesses reject Israeli police account that Ammar Mefleh was shot in self-defense and claim that Israeli security forces prevented medics from trying to save him as he lay on the sidewalk

by The Associated Press, Jack Khoury, and Josh Breiner for Haaretz
Dec 4, 2022 2:57 am IST

A makeshift sidewalk memorial with a Palestinian flag and a mourning notice paid tribute Saturday to a 22-year-old Palestinian whose death at the hands of an Israeli border police officer – four pistol shots from close range – was captured on widely shared amateur video.

A day after the shooting in the occupied West Bank town of Hawara, Palestinians pushed back against Israeli police claims that Ammar Mefleh was shot in self-defense after he attacked Israelis, including a border policeman, and resisted arrest.

They said the officer killed Mefleh without justification, and that Israeli security forces prevented Palestinian medics from trying to save the gravely wounded man as he lay on the sidewalk of a busy thoroughfare.

The 38-second video begins with a tussle between the border police officer and three Palestinians, including Mefleh, on the sidewalk as traffic rushes by. The officer pulled Mefleh away in a chokehold, and they exchanged blows after Mefleh freed himself. He tried to grab the officer's assault rifle, which dropped to the ground behind the officer, out of Mefleh's immediate reach. The officer then pulled his pistol and fired four shots as an unarmed Mefleh dropped to the ground.

Immediately after Friday’s fatal shooting, police alleged that Mefleh had carried a knife and tried to attack two Israelis in a car, and then tried to break into the locked vehicle with a rock.

They said the driver shot and wounded Mefleh, who then charged a group of border policemen, stabbing one in the face. The border police officer tried to arrest Mefleh, who resisted and attempted to grab the officer's weapon, police said. The officer who shot him was not hurt.

On Saturday, Border Police Commissioner Maj. Gen. Amir Cohen said that there was a "97 percent chance" that Mefleh was the one who stabbed the officer.

Two Palestinians who witnessed the incident and spoke to Haaretz delivered a different account of the events. Daoud Dameidi, who lives near the road where the incident happened, said that, initially, two Palestinian vehicles were involved in an accident. After that, he continued, an argument arose between one of the police officers on the scene and Mefleh due to the traffic congestion created by the crash. The two started fighting and Mefleh ran towards a car, he said, when an Israeli got out and shot Mefleh.

"He must have thought it was a terror attack or something… He must have hit the young man, and then the policeman tried to stop him, and he resisted," says Dameidi.

Dameidi added that two people tried to release Mefleh from the policeman's grip, but the latter continued to hold him. "I didn't see that Mefleh had a knife or held any sharp tool. It didn't seem like somebody was trying to carry out an attack." Dameidi added that "even when the policeman's weapon fell, you can see that no one approached him. The policeman could have shot one bullet in the leg, and that would have been the end of it. Why did he have to pierce him (Mefleh) like that? It was an execution."

Daoud Odeh, owner of a poultry shop on the same street, who witnessed the last minutes of the incident, also told Haaretz that a car accident occurred. After that, he said, an Israeli who was at the scene opened fire while a policeman chased after Mefleh. Odeh also didn't see that the young man had a knife or any other sharp tool in his hand.

Hawara Mayor Moein Dmeidy and others on Saturday cited second-hand accounts that there had been an altercation between Mefleh and an Israeli motorist after a car accident, but Associated Press journalists were unable to find witnesses to the events that led up to the shooting.

Dmeidy said the officer had no justification to kill Mefleh after he had already overpowered him. Mefleh was “killed in cold blood,” said the mayor, who arrived at the scene moments after the shooting. In a second video, Mefleh is seen moving and rolling over on the ground after being shot, and it's not clear at what point he died.

Dmeidy said a Palestinian ambulance arrived minutes after the shooting, but that security forces prevented the medics from administering aid. Dmeidy said Israel has not handed over Mefleh's body for burial.

Tor Wennesland, the special UN envoy to the Middle East peace process, wrote on Twitter that he was “horrified” by the shooting and sent “heartfelt condolences to his bereaved family.” He called for a thorough investigation and said those responsible must be held accountable.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon accused the envoy of distorting reality. “This incident is a terror attack, in which an Israeli policeman was stabbed in his face and the life of another police officer was threatened, and consequently he shot his assailant,” Nahshon wrote on Twitter.

On Saturday, shops along Hawara's main road were shuttered in protest over the shooting. A makeshift memorial marked the spot where Mefleh died, consisting of a Palestinian flag on a short pole and a death poster leaning against it. The poster, with a photo of Mefleh, said the Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas mourns its son “who was killed at the hands of the Zionist occupation.”

The video of Mefleh's final moments was a rare documentation of one of the increasingly common violent incidents involving Israeli security forces and Palestinians, including attackers.

Rising Israeli-Palestinian tensions have made 2022 the deadliest year in the West Bank and east Jerusalem in the long-running conflict since 2006. Further escalation is likely, as the most right-wing and religious government in Israel’s history is poised to be installed in the coming weeks, with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returning to power.

More than 140 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian fighting this year. The Israeli army says most of the Palestinians killed have been militants. But stone-throwing youths protesting Israeli army incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.

Friday’s deadly shooting came against the backdrop of months of Israeli arrest raids in the West Bank, prompted by a spate of Palestinian attacks against Israelis in the spring that killed 19 people.

The military says the raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks, but the Palestinians say they entrench Israel’s open-ended occupation, now in its 56th year. A recent wave of Palestinian attacks against Israeli targets killed an additional nine people.