Army says shooting death of Palestinian teen a case of mistaken identity

Military prosectors announce they were not pursuing criminal charges against soldiers who shot dead a Palestinian teenager and wounded several others in 2016 in what the army described as a case of mistaken identity.

“As the troops were operating in a clear operational event that was complicated and intense, the professional failures do not justify criminal proceedings, despite the tragic outcome,” the army says in a statement.

On a noncriminal, disciplinary level, the commander of the unit that killed Mahmoud Badran, 15, was denied entrance into the army’s company commanders course and left the military.

On the night between June 20 and 21, 2016, Israeli troops opened fire at a car full of Palestinian teenagers as they were traveling down the Route 443 highway in the West Bank, believing them to be a group of Palestinian youths who had earlier thrown cinderblocks at cars and spilled oil on the road, the army said.

“The commander of the unit misidentified the car… and the troops fired at the wheels of the vehicle. A short while after shooting, the mistake became known and medical treatment was given to the wounded,” the army says.

The military notes there were a number of “professional failings” in how the shooting was carried out, but says that the misidentification was “earnest and reasonable.”

— Judah Ari Gross