Israeli police volunteer suspected of killing Bedouin citizen

An Israeli Border Police volunteer is being investigated for the killing of a Bedouin man in February.

According to a report in Haaretz, the justice ministry is “probing” the incident, but eight months on, “has yet to summon the volunteers involved in the incident for questioning as possible suspects.”

According to the police, on the night in question, a “suspicious looking” vehicle failed to heed their calls to stop and a chase ensued. The car managed to escape and was later found torched.

One of the volunteers told investigators that he had indeed opened fire at the vehicle, but “believed he had missed.”

Later that night, 18-year-old Mazan Abu Habak was brought to a clinic in Rahat with a bullet wound to the back of the neck. He died four days later.

His father, Saliman, told Haaretz that his son had told him that he was going to buy a cell phone in a nearby town and later picked up two friends. “I spoke to him at 21:30,” Saliman said, “and told him to come home; he said he was with [the others] and would return soon.”

Haaretz notes that “the shooting in southern Israel wasn’t reported to the media at the time” by any of the relevant authorities.

The Justice Ministry told the paper that the individuals in question “had not been questioned with the intent of charging a crime until now because, based on the evidence collected, it wasn’t clear if there was a sufficient factual basis to suspect a criminal offense had been committed.”

The investigation is ongoing.