News / Palestine

Israelis aim to torch Palestinian whistleblower's home

Tuesday, 29 March 2016 7:09 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 29 March 2016 7:13 AM ]

Israeli forces gather around the body of a Palestinian (foreground) who was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier in the city of al-Khalil (Hebron), March 24, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

Israeli settlers have threatened to torch the house of a man who recently filmed the murder by an Israeli trooper of a Palestinian.

Imad Abu Shamsiyyeh captured the atrocity on Thursday. The footage he made has been released by human rights group B’tselem, of which he is a member.

It shows the Israeli soldier aiming for and shooting at the head of a Palestinian, named Abed al-Fatah al-Sharif.

Sharif was lying already wounded and subdued by Israeli fire on the ground after an alleged stabbing attack in the city of al-Khalil (Hebron) in the south of Tel Aviv-occupied West Bank.

The whistleblower’s wife, Fayza, told the Middle East Eye (MEE) news portal that the settlers have been surrounding their house for the past two days.

“They were chanting about burning our house down like they did in [the town of] Duma,” she said in reference to a July 2015 arson attack by Israeli settlers on the house of another Palestinian family, which killed all of them, including 18-month-old Palestinian baby boy Ali Sa’ad Dawabsheh, who died on the spot.

“I have small children, and believe me, I am so proud that my husband took that video to show the world what Israel’s army does; but I won’t sit around and wait for my family to be hurt for it,” Fayza said.
“There is no one in Hebron who can protect us,” she added, apparently referring to Palestinian security officials’ lacking jurisdiction over the city’s H2 block, where the house is located.

Another footage, released by Israeli paper Ha’aretz, shows the soldier being approached and greeted after the killing by Baruch Meir Marzel, a well-known far-right Israeli-American politician, and the trooper patting him on the arm in response.

A frame grab shows Israeli politician Baruch Meir Marzel (foreground) shaking hands with a soldier who killed a wounded Palestinian with a headshot in the city of al-Khalil (Hebron) in the south of Tel Aviv-occupied West Bank, March 24, 2016.

Palestinian outcry

After the killing, the Palestinian government called on the United Nations to launch a probe into the Israeli regime’s extrajudicial execution of Palestinians in the occupied lands.

Saeb Erekat, the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said the Israeli regime claims to have launched a probe into the killing of the Palestinian, but history shows that their investigations have failed to “serve justice” and perpetrators have instead been “rewarded with impunity.”

“Since September 13, [2015], 207 cases of Israeli extrajudicial executions of Palestinians urgently require an international investigation. These executions are not isolated events and Israel must be held accountable for committing these crimes,” he added.

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