PA security officer charged with killing Israeli man visiting West Bank holy site in 2011

A Palestinian security officer is charged with killing an Israeli man and injuring three others in 2011, when he and two other officers opened fire at the visitors’ car, after the Israelis toured a Jewish pilgrimage site in the West Bank without proper approval.

In April 2011, Ben-Yosef Livnat and five other people visited the Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus, without having coordinated the event with the Israel Defense Forces in advance. As the group of Israelis was leaving the holy site, the suspect — Saleh Hammad — and a number of other Palestinian security officers fired their guns into the air.

“When the car left the area, the commander of the patrol, [Hammad], and another patrolman fired many bullets at the car,” the IDF says.

Livnat was shot dead and three other people in the car were injured.

Hammad is charged in an IDF court with the crime of intentionally causing death — the military’s equivalent to murder — as part of a group, as well as attempted intentionally causing death as part of a group, and obstruction of justice. Despite the charge, Hammad is not believed to have fired the bullet that killed Livnat, according to the indictment against him.

The commander of the patrol and the other patrolman have already been found guilty and sentenced to prison terms.

Hammad was imprisoned by the PA following the incident in 2011. He was arrested by the IDF on May 9, 2020, after his release from PA custody.

— Judah Ari Gross