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Investigation urged in to Israel guards’ killing of Palestinian at checkpoint

April 9, 2018 at 12:11 pm

Israeli soldiers [Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency]

Human rights activists are urging an investigation into the killing of Mohammad Anbar, a 46-year-old Palestinian from Tulkarm refugee camp shot by Israeli security guards on 2 April.

According to the Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), Anbar was shot with three live bullets, and, six days later, succumbed to his wounds in hospital yesterday.

Anbar was shot at Jabara checkpoint south of Tulkarm, in the northern occupied West Bank. At the time, Israeli media claimed guards opened fire because Anbar had been running “in a suspicious manner”, but that “no weapons were found on [him]”.

After being shot, PCHR explained, Anbar “underwent several surgeries in which doctors cut off one of his legs”, in addition to suffering “from fractures to the pelvis”.

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Moreover, his brother and sister, Ibrahim and Jamila, while allowed to access the hospital (located in Israel), were prevented from seeing him in person “during the whole period”.

PCHR suggested that such conduct “indicates that there are suspicions about the circumstances of [the shooting of Anbar]”, since by stopping his relatives from seeing him, Anbar was prevented “from revealing the circumstances of the gunfire”.

PCHR explained how “Israeli security guard companies began organising the movement and supervising the crossings between the oPt [occupied Palestinian territory] and Israel upon the Israeli government’s decision to privatese around 54 crossings”. “The privatisation plan was overseen by a special body of the Israeli army ministry established in 2005 by its former minister, Shaul Mofaz,” PCHR added.