Israel’s Police commissioner Kobi Shabtai reportedly praised actions of the Israeli soldier who shot and killed a Palestinian youth yesterday with four live bullets at blank-point range in the occupied West Bank town of Huwwara, near Nablus city.
According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Shabtai spoke to the Israeli Border Police officer and praised him for his actions, saying that he “acted professionally as expected of any soldier or officer.” The commander of the Border Police, Amir Cohen, also praised the officer for his “quick response.”
On Friday and in the daylight, the praised Israeli soldier extrajudicially shot and killed a Palestinian youth, identified as 22-year-old Ammar Mefleh, at point-blank range in Huwwara town.
Video footage of the incident shared on social media showed the Israeli soldier scuffling with the Palestinian youth before pulling his gun and mercilessly firing four shots, killing him immediately and seizing his body.
The Palestinian was hit in the upper body and fell to the ground. Two of the shots hit him while he lay on the ground.
The brutal killing left people — some of them tried to break up the scuffle — at the scene shocked.
Local sources reported that Israeli forces present at the scene prevented residents and ambulances from providing aid to the injured youth.
Eyewitnesses said that after an Israeli settler shot at the Palestinian youth from his car and wounded him, Israeli soldiers attacked the man and let the settler off. The young man then attempted to free himself from the soldier before being shot dead.
Israeli forces claimed that the youth attempted to carry out a stabbing operation, but videos show the slain youth posed no threat to the soldiers.
