B’Tselem says second Palestinian ‘executed’ in Hebron shooting

The left-wing B’Tselem human rights organization claims the second Palestinian assailant who attacked two soldiers in Hebron on March 24 was also “executed” by an IDF soldier, potentially adding yet another controversial aspect to an already divisive case.

In March, Abed al-Fattah Yusri al-Sharif and Ramzi Aziz al-Qasrawi attacked two Israeli soldiers with knives in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of the West Bank city, wounding one of them.

The IDF has claimed al-Qasrawi died as a result of gunshots fired by a soldier during the attack, while al-Sharif was seriously injured.

A short while later, Sgt. Elor Azaria arrived on the scene and nearly 15 minutes after the initial attack, the Kfir Brigade soldier was filmed shooting al-Sharif in the head, killing him.

Azaria’s case has dominated headlines since March and divided the country.

Local residents, however, now claim al-Qasrawi was only wounded in the attack and after he was already incapacitated, a soldier “shot him in the “head or neck twice from point-blank range.”

According to B’Tselem, the delay in releasing this information was the result of the IDF’s 8-month closure on the Tel Rumeida neighborhood, which kept the organization’s investigators from interviewing the witnesses.

As the army removed those restrictions, the B’Tselem employee could interview the two witnesses who are claiming al-Qasrawi was “executed.”

The Tel Rumeida neighborhood is under surveillance by security cameras, meaning this accusation should be relatively easy to prove or disprove.

An IDF spokesperson tells The Times of Israel they are looking into the new allegation.

— Judah Ari Gross