The surveillance video was released by the human rights group B’Tselem on Sunday and shows an incident from July 3 near Ramallah in the West Bank. In the incident, a 17-year-old Palestinian youth was shot dead.
Though the action in the video is across the street from where the camera is mounted and shows the events only from a distance, Muhammad al-Kusbah (some reports write the surname as ‘al-Casba’) can be seen running toward what may be an Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) vehicle. He throws a rock at the windshield of the vehicle and runs away.
An officer, identified as Col. Israel Shomer, gets out of a door on the driver’s side of the vehicle and runs toward the back of it, firing his weapon. He then keeps rushing in the direction the rock-thrower had gone and is off-screen. Within about 30 seconds the officer returns to the vehicle and it drives off.
Al-Kusbah was rushed to hospital where he died. He had been shot in the back and face.
B’Tselem claims that the video shows that Col. Shomer did not follow rules of engagement, as the IDF have claimed. In the IDF statement about the death of al-Kusbah, they said the colonel “reacted exactly as expected given that the incident presented an immediate risk to life.”
However, B’Tselem said the video clearly shows Col. Shomer’s life was not at risk. And Thaer al-Kusbah, a brother of the dead youth, said it was an unnecessary killing; he believes the officer was not in fear for his life but killed his brother anyhow.
“It’s clear that Mohammed threw a stone and the officer came out of the car,” Thaer al-Kusbah told media. “He could have arrested him, he could have shot him in the leg, but he wanted to kill him.”
Israeli officials made no comment on the video and say the shooting is still being investigated.
