Israel/Palestine
Related: About this forumB'Tselem investigation: grave suspicion Ahmad Tazaz’ah was killed by Israeli soldiers using unlawful
Published:
11 Nov 2013
On the morning of 31 October 2013, at about 5:30 AM, Ahmad Tazazah, 20, who worked in a vegetable market, was hit in the chest by live ammunition. The ammunition was allegedly fired by an Israeli military force present in the market near the Palestinian town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin. Tazazah was rushed to the Jenin government hospital. He was dead on arrival.
The account published in the Israeli daily Haaretz quoted the militarys response to the incident: "An IDF force arrested four Palestinians in the town, south-west of Jenin, after some 50 Palestinians threw stones at them. Troops present on the scene responded with tear gas and stun grenades".
Inquiries by B'Tselem field researcher Atef Abu a-Rub found that on 31 October 2013, at about 3:00 AM, at least seven military vehicles entered Qabatiya as part of an arrest operation. The military vehicles left the town at around 5:00 AM, traveling north-west on the main road, toward Road 60. At around 5:15 AM, the vehicles passed near the Qabatiya market, which borders the main road about 2 kilometers from the town. Some 15 Palestinian youths who were at the market at the time began throwing stones at the vehicles as they went by.
5 November 5 2013, Qabatiya market. The man in the right foreground is standing at the spot where Ahmad Tazazah was hit. Across the road, further in the background, the man in the orange shirt is standing where the soldiers were stationed. Photo by Atef Abu a-Rub.
According to eyewitness accounts, it was at that point that a few of the military vehicles stopped on the road across from the market and several soldiers got out. The soldiers stationed themselves across from the market, on the other side of the road, about 35 meters north of the market entrance. The soldiers fired tear-gas grenades and lobbed stun grenades at the youths, who persisted in throwing stones. Witnesses also said that they heard a few solitary shots of live ammunition.
in full:http://www.btselem.org/firearms/20131111_killing_of_ahmad_tazazah