BEIT RIMA, West Bank (AP) — Surveillance camera video from a West Bank village shows a young man standing in a central square when he is suddenly shot and falls to the ground. Two other people who rushed to help him were also hit, killing a 17-year-old just before Israeli military jeeps rolled up.
An Associated Press review of the video and interviews with the two wounded survivors showed that Israeli soldiers opened fire on the three when they posed no threat. One of the wounded Palestinians was shot a second time after he stood up and tried to hop away.
A teenager was killed in a fatal shooting in the village of Beit Rima. It is the latest incident in which Israeli soldiers fired seemingly unprovoked. (January 10) (AP Video/Jalal Bwaitel)
The deadly shooting in the village of Beit Rima last week is the latest in a series of incidents in which soldiers fired seemingly without provocation. Palestinians say this trend has worsened since the Israel-Hamas war broke out in Gaza three months ago.
The Israeli military said troops entered Beit Rima overnight Thursday into Friday as part of a “counter-terrorism operation.” It said troops fired on suspects who threw explosives and firebombs at them.
Video obtained by the AP from a local smokehouse does not show anyone throwing explosives.
After reviewing the footage, a military spokesman said soldiers reported that one of the Palestinians – who was kneeling in front of an object just outside the frame – ignited a Molotov cocktail when he was shot.
However, the video shows that the first shot does not hit the kneeling man, but another Palestinian, Nader Rimawi. Nader told the AP that the object was a stack of cardboard boxes and scraps of paper collected by 17-year-old Osaid Rimawi, who planned to set them on fire to keep the men warm.
A man watches a replay of surveillance camera footage at a smokehouse in the occupied West Bank village of Beit Rima, Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024. Footage taken two days earlier from outside the store shows three Palestinians being shot, one of them fatally, by Israeli forces in the village square. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Other videos of the shooting posted on social media and reviewed by AP appear to match Nader's description of the object Osaid intended to set on fire. It's possible that videos taken from other angles could further clarify what happened.
In interviews with the AP, the injured villagers denied throwing explosives and said the shootings, which occurred around 2 a.m. Friday, were unprovoked.
Two of the six Rimawi brothers were in the town square when news spread that Israeli soldiers were in the village. They said they were aware of the army's presence but that there had been no confrontations. “We were with the young men standing at the city's roundabout,” said Mohammed Rimawi, 25. “We started looking around while standing and doing nothing.”
The half-hour surveillance camera video begins about 20 minutes before the shootings, with men gathering in small groups and walking in and out of the frame as cars come and go. Elsewhere in the village, some men are gesticulating.
The crowd in the frame eventually dwindles to under 10 people. Then they scatter when a shot hits Mohammed's brother, 29-year-old Nader, in the left leg.
The video shows Mohammed running to help before he is shot.
Mohammed Rimawi recovers from his injuries on Sunday, January 7, 2024, after being wounded by Israeli forces in a shootout in the occupied West Bank village of Beit Rima last week that also wounded his brother and killed a 17-year-old . (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Nader Rimawi recovers in a hospital in Ramallah, Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024, after being injured by Israeli forces in a shootout last week in the occupied West Bank village of Beit Rima that also injured his brother and a 17-year-old was killed . (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
“We saw a sniper who started shooting. He shot him. I went to help him. Then he shot me,” said Mohammed, who was hit by a bullet in his right hip.
The video shows Osaid rushing to their aid and putting something in his pocket. He is quickly shot and later dies from his wounds. His brother, Islam Rimawi, later told AP that he found a lighter, 20 shekels ($5.36) and a pack of cigarettes in Osaid's bag.
Mohammed was able to crawl away, but the other two remained on the ground. Nader stood up and tried to hop away before falling to the ground again. Days later, Nader said from his hospital bed that he collapsed after being shot in the right leg.
Apart from armed Israeli troops, no weapons are seen throughout the video. The shooter cannot be seen either.
In this security camera footage in the early hours of Friday, January 5, 2024, Israeli soldiers surround three men they shot dead in the occupied West Bank village of Beit Rima. One, a teenager, later died. (UGC via AP)
A poster shows 17-year-old Osaid Rimawi on Sunday, January 7, 2024, two days after he was fatally shot and two others injured by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank village of Beit Rima. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
The video showed four Israeli armored vehicles arriving about two minutes after the shooting and about a dozen soldiers exiting with weapons in a prone position. They gathered around Mohammed. A soldier nudged Osaid with his foot. Within four minutes, the soldiers left the wounded Palestinians on the ground and drove away, ignoring the pile of boxes and refusing to arrest them.
Another video of the shooting reviewed by the AP shows the stack of boxes then being knocked over by a Palestinian car rushing to evacuate the wounded.
Shortly afterwards, Osaid – a high school student training to be a hairdresser – was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
The military spokesman said there were other instances of Palestinians throwing Molotov cocktails at forces in Beit Rima that night, but said he did not know when. The men shot in the video said this was the only confrontation in Beit Rima that they were aware of that night.
The military did not respond to questions about whether soldiers had violated military policy or say whether there would be an official investigation.
The occupied West Bank village of Beit Rima is seen Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024, two days after Israeli forces killed a Palestinian teenager and injured two others in a shootout there. An Associated Press review of surveillance camera footage and interviews with the two wounded survivors suggests that Israeli soldiers opened fire on the trio when they posed no threat. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Israeli human rights group B'Tselem said questionable shootings, even when caught on camera and investigated by the military, rarely lead to charges.
“Cases like this happen fairly regularly, but no one hears about them,” said Dror Sadot, a spokesman for the group. “The military will say they are opening an investigation. And this investigation will take years, probably without media coverage. And then it gets washed down the drain.”
In response to Sadot's claim, a military spokesman issued the following statement: “Each investigative file is examined according to its circumstances. In appropriate cases, various enforcement actions will be taken, including the filing of charges.”
Human rights groups have already reported cases in which soldiers opened fire without endangering their lives, in apparent violation of the military's rules of engagement. In most cases the victims were Palestinians, but Israelis were also killed in high-profile shootings during the war.
In December, three Israeli hostages who escaped from their Hamas captors in Gaza waved white flags and called for help in Hebrew before being shot dead by soldiers.
Sadot said her organization has seen unprecedented levels of violence from soldiers and settlers in the West Bank since the war began. The West Bank is experiencing one of its deadliest periods on record, according to United Nations monitors.
Beit Rima resident Ahmed Rimawi, whose two brothers were injured in the shooting, said he believed soldiers had become more aggressive since the war began. They used to first fire stun grenades to disperse crowds in the village. Now, he said, “they are opening fire directly on people.”
Palestinian health authorities said 340 Palestinians have been killed in the three tense months since Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
The Hamas attack prompted Israel to launch a heavy air and ground assault on the Gaza Strip, killing over 23,000 people – and to tighten its control over the West Bank through near-nightly, often deadly raids. Israel says the crackdown is aimed at Hamas and other militant groups.
Mohammed and Nader are recovering from their wounds. Both usually work in a factory in a nearby Palestinian village, packaging prepared salads for the market. They said they wouldn't go back to work until they could walk.
Nader underwent surgery on Sunday for thigh injuries. Mohammed has been released from hospital but is unable to put any weight on his right leg. With the help of a metal walker, he limps around the family's small, ornate home in Beit Rima – a village of about 4,000 people north of the city of Ramallah.
Back at the village roundabout, the walls are covered with the weathered faces of local men killed in encounters or clashes with Israeli forces. Osaid's photo now appears in their ranks, looking at the pockmarked spot in the ground where he was killed.
___
Follow AP's coverage of the Israel-Hamas war at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.