Palestinian man shot dead after alleged car-ramming attack

Israeli forces shot and killed a man at a checkpoint near occupied East Jerusalem after he attempted to flee an inspection, police said.

Israel Palestine
Rights groups have raised concerns that Israeli security forces have used excessive force when confronting Palestinians [File: Majdi Mohammed/AP Photo]

Israeli forces have shot and killed a Palestinian man at a checkpoint after an alleged car-ramming attack outside of Jerusalem, according to local media and police reports.

Israeli border police on Wednesday opened fire on the driver at the al-Zaeem checkpoint, which separates an illegal Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank from a neighbourhood that lies in occupied East Jerusalem.

The driver, identified by local media as Nour Shuqir, is from the East Jerusalem town of Silwan. A police statement said he attempted to flee an inspection at the checkpoint, hitting and lightly injuring an Israeli border police officer.

“The policeman and security personnel fired at the vehicle,” it said, wounding the driver, who was taken to a Jerusalem hospital shortly before he was pronounced dead.

According to local media reports, Shuqir succumbed to his wounds after being shot in the abdomen.

The Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem said in a statement he arrived at the hospital’s trauma unit “with no pulse and a severe stomach wound”.

Police did not immediately release a video of the incident.

‘Executed’

In June, Ahmad Erakat, nephew of Saeb Erakat the veteran Palestinian negotiator who died of coronavirus this month, was shot dead at a West Bank checkpoint after Israeli police said he drove his car at speed towards a policewoman.

His uncle said at the time that Ahmad, 27, was “executed”.

He dismissed the police allegation of an attempted car-ramming as “impossible”, saying Ahmad had been due to be married later in the week.

The previous month, a Palestinian man was killed in similar circumstances near the West Bank city of Ramallah.

He was shot dead on May 29 after allegedly trying to ram a car into Israeli soldiers, none of whom was injured, police said at the time.

A number of local and international human rights groups have raised concerns that Israeli security forces have used excessive force when confronting Palestinians who carried out attacks or were suspected of doing so.

The Israeli police relaxed its open-fire regulations in December 2015, permitting officers to open fire with live ammunition on those throwing stones or firebombs as an initial option, without having to use non-lethal weapons first.

Israel has continued to expand settlements in the occupied territories, angering Palestinians, who view this as a theft of their land and a major obstacle in peace efforts.

Outgoing US President Donald Trump has given unprecedented support to Israel and has already broken with his predecessors by recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and repudiating the decades-old US position that settlements are inconsistent with international law.

The administration has also recognised Israel’s annexation of the occupied Golan Heights, seized from Syria in the 1967 war.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies