Border Police chief: troops who mistakenly killed teen girl in Jenin acted correctly

The commander of the Border Police says that troops who likely mistakenly shot and killed a teenage Palestinian girl during a battle with Palestinian gunmen in the northern West Bank city of Jenin had acted correctly.

“I emphatically and unreservedly expressed my backing and support for the fighters,” says Amir Cohen speaking at a military ceremony. “In the investigation that was presented to me a few hours after the incident, our fighters acted morally, with values, with courage, with determination and saved lives. And for that, I salute them.”

The IDF has said there was a “high probability” that a sniper accidentally shot and killed Jana Majdi Assam Zakarna, 16, who was found dead on the roof of her home with a gunshot wound to the head after the Israeli troops withdrew from Jenin.

The IDF, citing an initial probe of the shooting, said a Border Police sniper fired at Palestinian gunmen who were shooting at soldiers from rooftops during the raid.

“Fighting in hostile territory as we saw recently in the Jenin area, is sometimes clouded by the fog of battle. During this, we are obliged to make decisions under fire and in a short period of time,” Cohen says.

“We don’t have VAR,” he says referring to the video replays used by referees to review calls in soccer games. “We can’t go to the screen and decide what was the right thing or not.”