Video shows slain Palestinian teen posed no danger to Israel soldier who shot him

A video posted on social media has confirmed eyewitness reports that a Palestinian teenager killed by an Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank last week was not posing a danger when shot.

Nineteen-year-old Badr Nafla was killed last Friday during a protest at the Separation Wall in his village of Qaffin, in the northwest of the West Bank.

According to a report by +972 Magazine claims by the Israeli military spokesperson, that “soldiers spotted a Palestinian throwing a Molotov cocktail toward them, and fired back in order to counter the threat”, are contradicted by “video footage of the incident” and “witness testimony”.

The clip in question shows a few dozen Palestinians gathered near the Wall – which in Qaffin is a militarised fence – throwing stones and burning tyres.

A military jeep then approaches the scene, “and shortly after single shots can be heard, followed by cries for help in Arabic”. Nafla is then quickly “evacuated from the scene by ambulance”.

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A Palestinian eyewitness said that Israeli occupation forces were in no danger.

“He [the soldier] was sitting in an armoured jeep, and chose to get out in order to open fire,” the man said, adding that the jeep had passed by the protest several times before the fatal shooting.

“We were standing a short distance behind Badr when he was shot and killed,” the man continued.

“An Israeli jeep approached the gate in the separation fence, and a few youths threw stones at it from the other side of the fence. A soldier got out and fired a single bullet directly toward Badr.”

The man added that the army’s claim Molotov cocktails were being thrown is false. “There are security cameras on the fence, they could release the footage if they wanted to.”

Just last December, Haaretz revealed how Israeli occupation forces had shot some 20 Palestinians in the Qaffin area over the previous two months, as they were attempting to cross the fence.

Qaffin residents said that since the Trump administration published its so-called “peace plan”, local youth have been demonstrating on a daily basis by the Separation Wall, with “a number of injured protesters…evacuated to hospitals in the days leading up to Friday’s shooting”.

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