The family of a Palestinian citizen of Israel, who was shot dead by police after allegedly carrying out a car-ramming attack in Tel Aviv last Friday, are raising doubts over the Israeli authorities’ justification for killing him, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
Yousef Abu Jaber, 45, was buried on Tuesday morning in the town of Kafr Qasim, but many questions remain about the circumstances regarding his killing.
The Israeli police claimed Abu Jaber was shot dead after he ran his car into a group of people in Tel Aviv, which resulted in the death of an Italian tourist and the injury of others.
Abu Jaber’s family is disputing the police’s version of events, claiming that it was a car accident and not an attack.
“He didn’t have a nationalist background, he paid no attention to the news,” Omar Abu Jaber, Yousef’s brother, said.
The family demanded an investigation into the incident, stating that the weapon that the Israeli police claimed he used was not found and that the police hid the videos documenting the incident.
Moreover, the family said that the Israeli police and emergency services have changed their story multiple times, casting doubt over how the events unfolded.
According to WAFA, Magen David Adom’s ambulance service had initially claimed that the Italian tourist was killed as a result of being shot and then changed its statement, claiming that the death was a result of a run-over.
The Israeli police also claimed, in the beginning, that Abu Jaber tried to pull a weapon in his car, and so he was shot to death by a policeman following the incident. However, hours after the incident, they changed their statement and said that the alleged weapon was a plastic toy. The police did not provide documentation of the fake weapon.
