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Some scenes from a video shot in the West Bank and published by the Associated Press news agency show three unarmed Palestinian men suddenly hit by several unprovoked shots: one of them was killed and the other two were injured. It is not clear from the video where the shots came from, but according to reviews by the Associated Press, which are considered very rigorous and reliable, it was one or more Israeli army soldiers who fired.
The clash occurred around 2 a.m. on Jan. 5 in Beit Rima, a town of 4,000 people about 60 kilometers north of Ramallah, and was caught on a store's surveillance cameras.
In the video you can see about ten men standing in the middle of the street and at one point one of them kneels down and touches something on the ground. Immediately afterwards, another man, Nader Rimawi, is shot in the left leg and falls to the ground as everyone runs away. Two men approach Nader to help him and are also hit: they are Osaid Rimawi, who dies shortly afterwards, and Mohammed Rimawi, who is taken to hospital injured. Nader was also taken to the hospital and survived.
A later scene shows several Israeli army soldiers approaching Mohammed and Osaid, who were lying on the ground, and then walking away about four minutes later without doing anything.
Israeli soldiers approach wounded Palestinians (UGC via AP)
The Israeli army told The Associated Press that the soldiers opened fire because they thought the kneeling person had bent over to light a Molotov cocktail. However, the first shot did not hit the kneeling person, but the standing Nader. Nader said the person who bent over was actually trying to burn some pieces of paper and miscellaneous items he found nearby to keep warm.
Other residents of Beit Rima confirmed that the army was not provoked and that the Palestinian men attacked had no intention of setting off explosives. An army spokesman said other Palestinians had already tried to light Molotov cocktails in Beit Rima that evening, but those involved had not heard of any further clashes.
“My friends and I were near a roundabout when we heard someone saying that Israeli soldiers were traveling in the area. We stood there, not knowing what to do and having nothing with us,” Mohammad Rimawi told The Associated Press. “Suddenly a sniper started shooting at my brother and injured him. I ran to him to help him, but they shot me too.”
The funeral of Osaid Rimawi in Beit Rima (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Since the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the radical Palestinian group Hamas began last October, violence has also increased significantly in the West Bank. Ahmed Rimawi, Mohammad's brother, said soldiers often “enter cities and start shooting at civilians.” According to Palestinian authorities, around 340 people have been killed in the West Bank in the past three months.
The West Bank region lies between Israel, Jordan and the Dead Sea. In theory, it is controlled by the Palestinian Authority and therefore by Fatah, the party of President Mahmoud Abbas. In reality, Israel exercises almost complete power over the territory and has occupied it in recent decades with hundreds of colonies, settlements considered illegal by the vast majority of the international community.