Israeli military shot dead a Palestinian
2023.01.15 08:36
Israeli military shot dead a Palestinian
By Tiffany Smith
Budrigannews.com – During what a witness described as a scuffle at a crowded checkpoint on Sunday, Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian motorist in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli army claimed that the man had attempted to grab a soldier’s gun.
Ahmed Kahleh, 45, was found with a fatal bullet wound to the neck by Palestinian medical personnel dispatched to the scene near Silwad village. They claimed that Kahleh’s son had been pepper-sprayed. He was not immediately available for comment from Reuters.
According to relatives, the father and son drove together to their jobs and worked in the construction industry.
Since U.S.-backed peace talks with Israel stalled in 2014, violence has increased in the West Bank, one of the areas where Palestinians seek statehood.
Israel’s intensified raids in response to a rash of Palestinian street attacks in its cities last year have increased tensions.
According to a Palestinian driver who claimed to have witnessed the shooting on Sunday, drivers earlier at the checkpoint were getting heated, and they were honking their horns in frustration as they waited.
Maher Hadid, a 37-year-old driver, stated, “The army fired stun grenades and one of the grenades hit the man’s (Kahleh’s) car and the man began shouting at the soldiers.” According to Hadid, Kahleh got out of the vehicle, got into a fight with the soldiers, and was shot when the soldiers used pepper spray on him.
An Israeli army spokesperson said in a statement that troops had “used riot dispersal means in order to detain one of the suspects in the vehicle” and had “identified a suspicious vehicle which refused to stop for a routine inspection.”
According to the statement, one of the suspects was shot during an ensuing “violent confrontation” as he attempted to take one of the soldiers’ weapons. The statement did not specify whether the suspect shot was the same person who was detained.
Reuters was unable to independently verify a Sunday social media post that showed a man grappling with two soldiers in an underpass while a third soldier was nearby. A soldier appears to fire a rifle from a low angle in the video. The man disappears from view when another gunshot is heard.
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