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Photos:
Illustrative: A Palestinian woman looks at a member of the Israeli security forces standing guard at the Qalandiya checkpoint on July 3, 2015. (AFP/Abbas Momani, File) Published by Maan News

Scene: published by Maan News

An ID card provided by Israel Police identifying 23-year-old Maram Abu Ismayil, shot dead for attempted stabbing in West Bank. April 27, 2016.Israel Police Published by Maan News and Haaretz
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Update: (5/3/2016)

Qalandiya rashomon: Anatomy of an apparent murder in cold blood

Nobody knows what happened last week at Qalandiya checkpoint, where a pregnant Palestinian woman was killed together with her brother. And until police release the CCTV footage, nobody will.

By Alon-Lee Green for 972Mag, published 5.3.2016

Last week, 23 year-old Maram Salih Hassan Abu Ismail and her 16-year-old brother, Ibrahim, were killed by Israeli forces while walking towards Qalandiya checkpoint, in the West Bank.

The wanton coverage the killing got in the Israeli media made it clear instantly that something wasn’t quite right – beyond the ongoing injustice of the occupation.

Following increasing pressure from MKs Zehava Galon (Meretz) and Dov Khenin and Ahmad Tibi (Joint List), as well as Local Call and Haaretz newspaper, the Ministry of Public Security was forced to admit that they were killed by outsourced security guards, employees of the security services company Civil Intelligence.

On Monday it was reported that following an internal investigation, the company vindicated the killers of any wrongdoing. However, one crucial detail was missing in the investigation: the CCTV footage that recorded the incident was never published, and never given to the company. It is still being withheld by police.

Regardless of the CCTV footage, the evidence adds up to paint a disconcerting picture. The police refusal to release the footage and the Civil Intelligence’s slapdash investigation points to one conclusion: That the brother and sister did not pose any danger.

Let’s unpack the facts as we know them:

The arrival at the checkpoint: Pregnant 23-year-old Maram, a mother of two, was walking with her 16-year-old brother Ibrahim towards the Qalandiya checkpoint. The family said that she was on her way to receive medical treatment, and that was the first time she received permission to pass through the checkpoint.

The shooting: There are two partly complementary, partly contradictory versions. Police say that at some point Maram and Ibrahim were told to halt, but she started walking backwards and hurled a knife at them from a 15-20-meter distance (Maram apparently had quite impressive aiming skills). According to Palestinian eyewitnesses, Maram and Ibrahim were marching on the road, rather than the pedestrian lane, and were told in Hebrew to stop.

Once she was told to stop, both versions concur, she was shot by the security guards. Her brother – who at no stage was suspected of attempting to attack them – bent over to help her and was shot as well. All in all, Maram and Ibrahim took 15 bullets. The shooters were aiming from a safe distance, probably behind concrete barriers.

The death: After they were shot, the soldiers and policemen present prevented a Palestinian ambulance from reaching the wounded siblings. According to eyewitnesses, anyone who tried to approach them was fended off with tear gas. Maram and Ibrahim lay on the road and slowly bled to death.

The CCTV and classified footage: Qalandiya checkpoint, just like any other in the West Bank, is hermetically covered by CCTV. In many cases in the past, when the army and police claimed that a Palestinian attempted a stabbing attack, they released the CCTV footage as corroboration. In this case, the police haven’t done so for almost a week.

Contacted by Local Call, an Israel Police spokesperson said in response: “The incident is still under investigation. We are prevented from commenting until it is completed.”

The outsourced security guards: Following queries from politicians and the media, the police admitted on Sunday that the initial reports that Maram and Ibrahim were killed by police were false. They also said that the police gave them a warning (which wasn’t necessarily supposed to lead to their death) and shot a bullet in the air, but the security guards ended up shooting them.

Leaving aside the inherent injustice of the occupation for a minute, this incident raises some very challenging questions.

1. Why did they have to die? Clearly, according to the evidence we have, there was absolutely no reason to kill them. As the police themselves said, the incident could have ended with their arrest.

2. Why was Ibrahim shot, even though he posed no danger at all? In none of the official responses, and I looked at all of them carefully, did anyone claim that Ibrahim took out a knife or threatened anybody. Still, the statements said that “two terrorists were killed” and that after the event knives were found on Ibrahim’s dead body. It seems concocted to me.

3. WHY THE HELL WERE 15 BULLETS FIRED FROM A 15-METER DISTANCE? And why did they prevent medical staff from treating them? How could they feel threatened behind concrete barriers, armed to their teeth, with so many troops around them? And the threat was (at best), two young people carrying a knife. It sounds like an execution, but police say it wasn’t. I’m still trying to figure out what else it could have been.

4. Why are the police not releasing the footage? That question speaks for itself. What have they got to hide?

5. Are outsourced security guards (mercenaries, if you will) allowed to take away people’s lives? This seemingly innocuous detail potentially frames the whole thing as an execution, a murder. Police were present, and they were allegedly operating according to the rules of engagement, but then they were outflanked by the private gunmen.

Beyond the issue of how privatization even pervades the security sector, the question that arises is the following: Are they bound by the army’s rules of engagement? Can they be held accountable by a military inquiry (not that there’s too much to expect from those, but still). Or are we seeing a phenomenon of mercenaries manning Israel’s checkpoints?

Alon-Lee Green is a political activist. This article was first published in Hebrew on Local Call. Read it href="http://mekomit.co.il/%D7%A7%D7%9C%D7%A0%D7%93%D7%99%D7%94-%D7%94%D7%95%D7%A6%D7%90%D7%94-%D7%9C%D7%94%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%92/">here.
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BETHLEHEM (Ma’an), April 27, 2016 -- Israeli forces on Wednesday shot and killed a pregnant Palestinian woman and her 16-year-old brother after they allegedly attempted to carry out a stab attack on border police at Qalandiya military checkpoint near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, police and witnesses said.

Israeli police spokesperson Luba al-Samri said two suspects -- a woman and a youth -- approached the vehicular path leading through the military checkpoint and walked towards border police officers, the woman with her hand in her bag and the youth with hands behind his back.

Officers ordered them to halt several times and they began to turn back before police said the woman threw a knife at an officer. Police opened fire, killing the woman immediately. The youth's death was confirmed shortly after.

An eyewitness told Ma'an that Israeli forces fired more than 15 rounds into the woman’s body, confirming her death.

Witnesses are heard in video footage of the scene following the incident claiming that a Palestinian boy approached the woman after she was killed, before being shot by Israeli forces as well.

The Palestinian Red Crescent told Ma’an that Israeli forces denied Palestinian paramedics access to the woman and child for medical treatment.

The Palestinians were identified as 23-year-old mother of two Maram Salih Hassan Abu Ismail, and her 16-year-old brother Ibrahim, according to a Palestinian military liaison. The siblings were from the West Bank town of Qatuna.

The family later told Ma'an Maram was five months pregnant at the time of her death.

No Israelis were injured in the incident.

The military checkpoint where the two were killed is a main access point for Palestinians to cross from the occupied West Bank to Jerusalem and has been the site of a number of alleged, actual, and attempted attacks since October.

The unrest of the past nearly seven months -- marked by small-scale attacks carried out by Palestinian youth, the majority on Israeli military targets -- has decreased over the past month.

Wednesday's incident marks the first alleged attack attempt since a Palestinian from Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem carried out a bus bombing in Jerusalem last week, dying later from his wounds and leaving 20 injured.

The violence has left nearly 30 Israelis and 200 Palestinians dead. According to the UN, investigations showed that Israeli forces have in a number of instances since the unrest began implemented a policy of extrajudicial execution, shooting dead Palestinians who did not present imminent threat at the time of their death.
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Two Palestinian Siblings Shot Dead After Attempted Knife Attack at West Bank Checkpoint

According to police, two were killed after woman threw knife at guards.

by Nir Hasson, Gili Cohen and Jack Khoury for Haaaretz

A Palestinian woman armed with a knife and her younger brother were shot dead by Israeli security forces at the Qalandiyah checkpoint in the West Bank on Wednesday morning, Jerusalem Police said, prompting clashes in the area.

Before being shot, the two were ordered to stop several times but continued to approach officers and guards stationed at a drive-through checkpoint not intended for pedestrians.

According to the police, as the two approached, the woman's hand was buried inside her bag and his hand was behind his back. The two eventually heeded the police's call, stopping a short distance from the officers and turning away, but the woman then spun back around and pulled out the knife, throwing it directly at one of the officers. Police and security guards then shot the two.

The police found another knife identical to the one she was carrying, while a switchblade was found on the her brother's body.

Police and Palestinians identified the woman as 23-year-old Maram Abu Ismayil, a mother of two from East Jerusalem, but originally from Beit Surik in the West Bank. Later, Palestinians identified him as Ibrahim Salah Tahah, her 16-year-old brother. Palestinians further claim that Israeli forces fired numerous bullets at the two and prevented medics from treating them afterwards.

Clashes then broke out in the area, with Border Police confronting about 30 Palestinians who threw rocks at them with tear gas.

Hassan Tahah, another sibling, told Haaretz that he doesn't believe his sister was planning to carry out an attack. "We have no details about what transpired and no one briefed us, but I don't believe this whole terrorist attack story," he said. According to him, his sister was on her way to a doctor's appointment, accompanied by his brother. "She was probably lost, or didn't understand what was going on at the roadblock, and the soldiers shot her and my brother," he said.

The attempted attack comes after a relative calm in violence, which defense officials attribute to improved intelligence capabilities due to leads about potential attackers from social media. In the past, the IDF chief of staff has said the army had no prior warning of lone-wolf attacks, but a senior officer told Haaretz the trend was now reversing and the military has the ability to stop potential attackers beforehand, either at their homes or en route to an attack.

The drop in attacks is also the result of cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian security forces. The IDF chief told the cabinet last week that coordination with the Palestinians has improved. Furthermore, the Palestinians have begun addressing the issue through educational programs attempting to discourage youths from launching such attacks.
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Witnesses: Palestinian siblings posed no threat when shot dead
Updated April 28, 2016

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Witnesses to an alleged stab attempt on Israeli border police at a military checkpoint in the occupied West Bank Wednesday said two siblings shot dead during the incident posed no threat at the time the Israeli officer killed them.

Witnesses told Ma’an that 23-year-old Maram Salih Hassan Abu Ismail, five months pregnant, and her 16-year-old brother Ibrahim were en route to Jerusalem when they took a path intended for vehicles, not pedestrians, into Qalandiya checkpoint near Ramallah. The two were apparently unable to understand Israeli officers yelling in Hebrew, and stopped walking.

Witnesses said it appeared that Ibrahim attempted to grab his sister's hand and move away from the officers, when they opened fire on her. Maram fell to the ground and when Ibrahim attempted to aid her, he was shot in his tracks.

A Palestinian bus driver present at the scene, Muhammad Ahmad, told Ma’an that the Israeli officer who opened fire on Maram was standing behind a cement block some 20 meters away from her at the time. The driver said it did not appear that Maram or her brother posed any threat when the officer shot them.

Palestinian local and witness to the incident Ahmad Taha told Ma’an that Israeli officers approached the two after they had been shot and had fallen to the ground before opening fire on them again “to ensure that they were dead,” adding that the officers “could have moved the two away without opening fire.”

Taha alleged that the officers planted knives on the scene, photographs of which were distributed by Israeli police who said they had been in Maram and Ibrahim’s possession.

The witness accounts collected following the incident contradict Israeli police reports that the officer opened fire after Maram threw a knife in their direction.

Local sources said Maram was the mother of a six and four-year-old, and five months pregnant. She had reportedly obtained a permit from the Israeli authorities to enter Jerusalem for the first time when she was crossing on Wednesday.

Maram and her 16-year-old brother are among over 200 Palestinians to be killed by Israeli forces or settlers since October, the majority during small-scale attacks that have left nearly 30 Israelis dead.

Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip denounced the deaths Wednesday and called for continued resistance against the Israeli occupation.

Daoud Shihab, spokesperson of the Islamic Jihad movement, referred to their deaths as an “execution,” while Fawzi Barhum of Hamas said the move by the Israeli officer to shoot the two was “systematic terrorism” and a “hideous crime that has crossed all red lines,” adding that the “crime would not go without punishment.”

Maram and Ibrahim’s deaths come in the wake of mass criticism towards what has been termed Israel’s policy of “extrajudicial executions” towards Palestinians, which most recently came under spotlight after an Israeli soldier was caught on film shooting a prone Palestinian through the head from point blank range.

Israel's excessive use of force against Palestinians has brought allegations from local and international NGOs, senior UN officials and foreign leaders, and prominent US congressmen that Israeli forces regularly carry out unlawful killings.

Popular Palestinian support for stab attacks -- widely explained by Palestinian and international leadership as a natural response to the effects of the ongoing Israeli military occupation -- has hovered below fifty percent for the past two months, according to polls, coinciding with a relative drop in the frequency of such attacks that initially surged in October.

A reduction in stab attacks has been attributed to security coordination between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, as well as to general public sentiments that the attacks are not effective in resistance against the occupation, according to polls.