News / Palestine

Israeli police officers beat up Palestinian in Tel Aviv

Monday, 23 May 2016 6:36 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 23 May 2016 6:38 AM ]

This screengrab taken from a video posted online shows the scene of a brawl between Israeli border police officers and a young Palestinian man outside a supermarket in Tel Aviv, May 22, 2016.

Israeli border police officers together with a number of passersby have violently beaten up a young Palestinian man outside a supermarket in Tel Aviv.

Eyewitnesses, who shared accounts and video footage of the incident on social media, said the Palestinian youth was throwing garbage into a can outside the supermarket where he was working when two Israeli officers in plainclothes approached him and asked for his identity card and residency permit.

The Palestinian reportedly said his documents were inside the supermarket, but the Israeli forces started brutally punching and kicking him.

Erez Krispin, a witness, described the blows as “murderous” in a Facebook post, adding, “Teeth were flying through the air. The Arab was torn apart.”

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the two plainclothes officers asked the Palestinian man for his ID before a brawl started and there was “pushing and shoving.”

Rosenfeld said two officers in uniform later arrived, adding that the other individuals seen attacking the Palestinian in the video had no connection with the police.

Israeli military forces and illegal settlers have frequently been caught on camera assaulting Palestinians.

In March, a video showed an Israeli soldier fatally shooting a Palestinian lying wounded on the ground in the southern occupied West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron), point blank.

The murder sparked an outrage, with critics describing it as indicative of the Tel Aviv regime’s “shoot-to-kill” policy against Palestinians.

The occupied territories have been the scene of heightened tensions since August 2015, when Israel imposed restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam after Masjid al-Haram in Mecca and Masjid al-Nabawi in Medina.

More than 210 Palestinians, including women and children, have lost their lives at the hands of Israeli forces since October 2015. Some 30 Israelis have also been killed since then.

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