Palestinian Man Fatally Shot in Confrontation With Israeli Police
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Version 0 of 1. RAMALLAH, West Bank — A Palestinian man wearing jeans, a black shirt and sneakers approached two heavily armed Israeli police officers at a West Bank checkpoint in Nablus on Monday, claiming he was sick and needed medical assistance. It was a ruse, according to an Israeli police spokeswoman, who said the man tried to stab the border officers before they shot him dead. The man, identified by the police as Mohammad Abu Amsha, 26, was the third Palestinian to try to stab Israelis in the West Bank since Saturday, and the second to be fatally shot. He appeared to have acted independently of any Palestinian faction. The stabbing attacks suggest an uptick of violence by Palestinians who say they feel vulnerable to attack by Israeli security forces and Jewish settlers, particularly since the July 31 firebombing of a home in a West Bank village that killed a Palestinian toddler and his father. “People feel unsafe,” said Diana Buttu, a lawyer who splits her time between the Israeli city of Haifa and Ramallah in the West Bank. “There’s nobody out there to protect them, and they feel very angry about what’s going on.” “If you go outside Ramallah, to the small villages and towns, they feel totally insecure that the Israelis will come and do something,” Ms. Buttu said. Individual acts of violence by Palestinians have included driving at Israeli soldiers and civilians, and stabbings. But there have also been dramatic acts of resistance, including a 63-day hunger strike by an imprisoned Palestinian lawyer, Mohammad Allan, to protest his indefinite incarceration. On Monday, Mr. Allan’s lawyers appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court to release the prisoner, who lost consciousness on Friday and is being kept alive by an artificial respirator and a supply of fluids and nutrients delivered intravenously. His lawyers argue that he does not pose a security threat in his current state. Israeli prosecutors have offered to release Mr. Allan if he agrees to a four-year exile, said Sawsan Zaher, one of his lawyers. But Ms. Zaher said she could not answer for him. The court is expected to hold another hearing on Wednesday. Israeli officials have been seeking to start a new law passed July 31 that would allow them to force-feed Mr. Allan. But physicians following the directives of the Israeli Medical Association, which considers force-feeding to be torture, have so far refused to examine Mr. Allan, as required by the law, without his consent. Mr. Allan’s health has now deteriorated too far to consider force-feeding. Should Mr. Allan die in Israeli custody, it could ignite more unrest. So too could the response of Israel security forces to Palestinian attackers. Palestinians on social media blamed Israel — and the Palestinian Authority, led by President Mahmoud Abbas — for Mr. Abu Amsha’s killing. “The president is busy holding parties and honoring artists,” Hussam Shourbajji wrote in a Facebook comment about a Palestinian news website’s article about Mr. Abu Amsha’s death. “He’s not available for martyrs.” Luba Samri, an Israeli police spokeswoman who provided the official account of Mr. Abu Amsha’s killing, said the police were justified in using deadly force against him because he posed an immediate danger. A Palestinian Red Crescent official, Abdel Haleem Jaafreh, said Mr. Abu Amsha was shot four times, including in the neck, stomach and arms. Photographs posted on social networks after the shooting appeared to confirm Mr. Jaafreh’s descriptions. It was the third attack in the West Bank since Saturday, when two Palestinians were shot, one fatally, during attacks on security forces in two separate incidents. Another Palestinian was shot dead in a West Bank stabbing earlier this month. Gen. Adnan Damiri, the spokesman for the Palestinian Authority security forces, accused the Israeli government of seeking to antagonize Palestinians by using excessive force. “They are seeking a violent response to justify their own behavior, and the behavior of their settlers,” General Damiri said. “If it was a stabbing, and we cannot confirm whether there was an attempted stabbing or not, the Israeli response was very excessive.” Suggesting a deeper concern, he added, “I think this will explode in the face of the Palestinian Authority.” |