Israeli probe: Palestinian teen shot dead posed no danger

An internal Israeli army investigation has revealed that the lives of Israeli soldiers were not at risk when a 15-year-old Palestinian boy was shot dead, Haaretz reported yesterday.

Khalid Bahr Ahmad was shot after allegedly throwing a stone at a soldier, an internal investigation into his death revealed that the soldiers were not in imminent danger and did not act in accordance with the army’s “open-fire regulations”, which state that “soldiers should not shoot to kill unless they are in an immediate and clear danger”.

An Israeli army spokesperson said that, at the time of Khalid’s killing, soldiers were “attacked” by Palestinian youth throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers while they were patrolling the area near Beit Ummar in the southern occupied West Bank. The spokesperson said one soldier was “lightly wounded” by a rock and called one of the young Palestinian suspects to “halt”, firing a warning shot in the air, and then fired “towards the suspect, resulting in his death.”

Local reports at the time claimed that the teenager was shot in the back, and according to the investigation, the soldiers said that they had “got out of their army jeep and began chasing the stone throwers” when the soldiers’ commander opened fire on Khalid, killing him.

While the internal investigation determined the soldiers were not in imminent danger at the time, the Israeli army commander has kept firm to his story that the soldiers were indeed in danger, according to Haaretz.

Meanwhile, the killing of 23-year-old Rahiq Shaji Birawi at the Zaatara checkpoint in Nablus was also a case under investigation, which reportedly documented that Birawi was shot more than 30 times by Israeli forces after she allegedly approaching a border police officer with a knife.

According to Haaretz, one of the Israeli soldiers had shot at her legs, wounding her, before four other Israeli officers also shot live bullets at her, which was caught on video.

Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Al-Samri said in a statement at the time of the killing that Birawi approached Israeli border guards stationed at the Tappuah junction – the Israeli term for the area around the checkpoint – when they fired warning shots into the air. After she “ignored their directives and their calls for her to stop”, Birawi allegedly pulled out a knife, and Israeli forces opened live fire and “neutralised” her.

The incident is still being investigated by an internal army probe.