Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian at Point-Blank Range in Al-Quds (+Video)
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Israeli forces killed a Palestinian in the middle of the street near the Damascus Gate in the Old City of East Jerusalem al-Quds for an “alleged stabbing attack” on Saturday.
According to the Palestinian Red Cross, Israeli forces would not allow medics to treat the wounded, as three more Palestinians were injured in the kerfuffle with Israeli police.
The incident took place near Damascus Gate just outside East Jerusalem al-Quds’ Old City, a crowded area that is often the scene of demonstrations and clashes.
The alleged assailant was not immediately identified. Israeli public radio said he was a 25-year-old from the northern town of Salfit in the occupied West Bank.
Footage filmed by a bystander near Damascus Gate and widely shared on social media showed a man in jeans lying prone on a sidewalk as police fired shots at him.
The official Palestinian state news agency Wafa said the man was killed “when Israeli police officers opened fire on him at point-blank range”.
Mohammed Hamadeh, Jerusalem al-Quds spokesman for the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, decried the “deliberate shooting of a wounded young man lying on the ground”.
Palestinian lawmaker Dimitri Deliani described it as “the execution of a Palestinian young man in cold blood”.
Israel’s border police chief said he fully backed the officers whose response.
After the shooting, police fired tear gas near the Damascus Gate to disperse Palestinians who gathered there.
The incident came after security forces shot dead a 16-year-old in the Old City who they said stabbed two police officers days before that.
Israel has occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds since 1967.