Tel Aviv, 17 Ramadan 1437/22 June 2016 (MINA) – Israeli soldiers chasing rock throwers opened fire at an uninvolved Palestinian car early Tuesday, killing a 15-year-old boy and injuring four others, officials said.
An Israeli military spokeswoman in Tel Aviv admitted that the injured Palestinians were innocent passers-by mistakenly targeted by soldiers who believed they were chasing another group of Palestinians involved in a rock and firebomb attack on Israeli motorists, DPA reported.
Palestine Liberation Organization Secretary General Saeb Erekat condemned the shooting as a “cold-blooded assassination” and said the United Nations should immediately investigate Israeli “extra-judicial killings” of Palestinians, particularly children.
Erekat said that Mahmoud Badran, 15, from a village west of Ramallah, and the other passengers had been on their way home from a nearby swimming pool when their car suddenly came under fire.
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Three 16-year-olds and a 17-year-old were injured.
The Israeli military said that three civilians were injured in the massive stone-throwing attack on a Jerusalem road that partly passes through the West Bank.
Witnesses said a dozen cars were damaged in the incident.
They said masked Palestinians pelted Israeli motorists with large rocks and Molotov cocktails after pouring oil on the road, injuring three people – one Israeli and a tourist couple.
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“Nearby forces acted in order to protect additional passing vehicles from immediate danger and fired towards suspects,” the military spokeswoman said, adding: “It appears that uninvolved bystanders were mistakenly hit during the pursuit.”
She said the Israeli army was investigating the incident.
Top PLO official Hanan Ashrawi accused Israel of implementing a “shoot-to-kill” policy and called the soldiers’ fatal shooting of the boy a “terrorist attack.”
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry also condemned the shooting, calling it a deliberate “field execution,” and said it brought to 220 the number of Palestinians killed in a wave of violence since October.
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The ministry said the shooting came at a time when the “extreme-right government” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was rejecting and foiling all international efforts to revive a “serious and genuine peace process,” including a French initiative.
Israel says that the vast majority of Palestinians killed are assailants, shot while attacking or trying to attack Israelis in 290 stabbings, shootings and other attacks. Thirty-three Israelis have been killed in the attacks.
Collective punishment
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Meanwhile, a large Israeli force drove into a village near the West Bank town of Qalqiliya and demolished the family home of a Palestinian knife attacker, who had killed an American tourist and injured a dozen passers-by in a March stabbing spree in Tel Aviv.
Bashar Masalha, 22, started stabbing people in the ancient port of Jaffa in the south of the city, after which he ran northwards along the seaside promenade and stabbed more until he was shot dead.
Rights groups slam the Israeli policy of demolishing militants’ homes as a form of “collective punishment,” which is considered illegal under international law.
Israel’s right-wing government insists it is one of the few means at its disposal to deter potential attackers willing to sacrifice themselves to kill Israelis.
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Left-liberal critics inside Israel warn the measure may be counterproductive, as it only angers Palestinians. (T/R07/R01)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
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