Israel's military police have launched an investigation into a recent Israel Defense Forces arrest raid in which a Palestinian was killed. The Palestinian's cause of death has been disputed, with controversy fanned by security camera footage of the incident that was widely broadcast after the event.
The military police made the announcement Wednesday after new footage of the incident emerged, collected from a number of Palestinian stores in the alley where it occurred. The original security camera footage showed the Palestinian running down an alley with a long object on his shoulder, then a soldier opening fire and the man falling, followed by other soldiers beating and kicking the man before dragging him away.
The Israeli soldiers were in the West Bank town of Jericho on a routine arrest raid last Thursday when the incident occurred.
On Friday, after a preliminary investigation, the IDF ruled that the Palestinian, named as 33-year-old Yassin Omar al-Saradih, had died from tear gas exposure. However, according to media reports, a subsequent autopsy concluded that the death was the result of gunfire.
Israel's Channel 10 News quoted the soldier who opened fire as saying he was not sure he had hit Saradih. The soldier said he had fired in self-defense, believing his life was in danger.
The left-wing rights group B'Tselem, which aims to document Israeli misdeeds against Palestinians, oversaw the collection of the new security footage. The collected videos seem to confirm that Saradih planned to attack the troops, charging at them with a large metal rod. The footage shows Saradih being shot at point-blank range in his lower body and falling, and then being arrested, with at least four soldiers beating him with the butts of their rifles and kicking him in the groin as he lay on the ground.
The IDF says the video footage proves that Saradih was planning a terrorist attack, trying to snatch one of the soldiers' guns during the altercation. A knife was later discovered on his body.
