Israel Police defends killing of suspected Palestinian stabber
Spokeswoman says video apparently showing officers shooting at 19-year-old woman as she lay on ground only gives ‘partial picture’
The Israel Police on Thursday defended Border Police officers who shot dead a 19-year-old Palestinian woman accused of trying to stab them, after footage emerged appearing to show them open fire on her as she lay on the ground.
In the Wednesday incident at Tapuah junction in the northern West Bank, the woman, named as Raheeq Shajeyeh Youssef, approached the officers, ignored orders to stop and pulled a knife, police said. The officers then opened fire at her.
It was not clear who filmed the video, which shows four officers. “Who fired?” a voice can be heard saying afterward. “The four of us,” someone responds.
The junction, located close to several settlements, has been the site of a number of violent incidents.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yllWOEGt8pw
“Attempted stabbing at Tapuah Junction,” the Israel Police tweeted after the incident. “A short while ago a female suspect approached Border Police officers at the scene holding a knife. When she failed to heed their calls to halt, they shot and neutralized her.”
In a subsequent statement confirming the alleged attacker was killed, police said officers fired warning shots in the air before opening fire on her. In the aftermath of the attack, the junction was closed to traffic.
Police said an inquiry had been opened as is usually done with fatal incidents, but defended the officers.
“The video shows a partial picture of the event,” police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement.
“It is not possible to see the terrorist moving towards the officers while handling the knife and endangering their lives,” she said.
“From the recording of the event it is possible to see that immediately after the danger was neutralized and had passed, the officers stopped firing, closed the area and proceeded to do the follow-ups on the incident.”
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry harshly criticized the shooting, saying in a statement that, “the recording shows the soldiers continued to shoot [the woman] despite her falling to the ground and not representing any threat to them.”
The ministry alleged the death was one of “dozens” of similar cases.
Israeli security forces have been accused of using disproportionate force in a number of cases over the past year.
IDF Sgt. Elor Azaria is on trial for manslaughter after video emerged showing him shooting and killing a wounded Palestinian attacker as he lay on the ground in Hebron in March.
Police were also criticized for the shooting of a Palestinian teenage girl involved in a stabbing attack with scissors in November.
Footage appeared to show an officer shoot the girl again as she was already on the ground.
Violence since October 2015 has killed 234 Palestinians, 36 Israelis, two Americans, one Jordanian, an Eritrean and a Sudanese national, according to an AFP count.
Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities. Others were shot dead during protests or clashes, while some were killed in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip.
