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Saleh Barghouthi shot by Israel forces ‘point blank’ in ‘extrajudicial killing’

January 31, 2019 at 11:01 am

Saleh Barghouthi -[Twitter]

Israeli occupation forces shot Saleh Barghouthi “point blank” in an apparent “extrajudicial killing”, according to an investigation by human rights group B’Tselem.

The results of the investigation directly contradict the official version of events, B’Tselem added.

On 12 December 2018, two vehicles “blocked the path of a taxi driving along the main road of Surda, a Palestinian village in Ramallah District” – “driving the taxi was Saleh Barghouthi, 28, husband and father of a 5-year-old boy from the village of Kobar, which lies north of Ramallah”.

Around ten members of various Israeli units exited the vehicles, “surrounded the taxi and shot Barghouthi point-blank”; they then pulled “the wounded Barghouhti out of the taxi, handcuffed him and drove away with him”.

READ: Israeli soldiers fatally shot unarmed Palestinian teen in the back from 80 metres 

One eyewitness told B’Tselem how she saw Israeli special forces “wearing facemasks and black uniforms with vests and carrying rifles” surround the car, followed by the sound of “three or four shots…fired directly at the driver from close range”.

B’Tselem noted that “contrary to statements issued by the Shin Bet and the IDF, which framed the killing of Saleh Barghouti as an undesirable outcome of his arrest, Barghouthi did not try to flee or run anyone over, nor could he have tried. He was surrounded by security forces, sitting in a taxi that was blocked at either end by security vehicles.”

“In this position, he was shot point-blank and critically injured. There is no way to justify what appears to be an extrajudicial killing, rather than an arrest. Yet experience shows that no one will be held accountable in this case, too. Whether the incident is even investigated or not, Israel routinely sanctions the use of lethal force by its security forces against Palestinians,” B’Tselem concluded.