Video: Soldier appears to kick knife closer to accused Hebron attacker before his death

There is new video out from the March 24 killings in Hebron, in which two Palestinians accused of attacking an Israeli soldier were shot dead, in what a human rights group called a double execution. The video shows outright tampering of the crime scene: an Israeli soldier kicking what is said to be a knife in the street closer to the incapacitated form of Abd al Fatah al Sharif, 21, who was later shot dead.

Badia Dwaik of Human Rights Defenders reports on this video:

In the first few seconds a soldier can be seen kicking the knife towards Abd alFatah alSharif, who is lying there still alive. Within a few minutes, he will be permanently executed by the soldier, Elor Azaria [who was charged in the killing of al Sharif]. we can clearly see: The settler, who has literally blood on his hands, together with the soldier, move the knife to a more desirable place for them.. On the road lie the two Palestinian young men – Ramzi alQasrawi and Abd alFatah alSharif – one seemingly already executed, the other not as yet. Next to them, a soldier is crouching, serenely, to lace his shoes. In the background the soldier Elor Azaria can be seen.

It is difficult to assume that anybody there at the scene avoided being close to the shot young men “because he felt in danger”. Their blood is already on their hands.

The assertion that the object in the video is a knife is borne out by this later video, following al-Sharif’s killing, showing what is clearly a knife in a similar spot.

That later video was released by a prosecutor last week in the manslaughter trial of Israeli sergeant Azarya. That video showed, first, an ambulance running over the knife, then a man, said to be a settler leader, kicking the knife even closer to the body of al-Sharif.