New video footage of the moment that Israeli soldiers opened fire on a Palestinian family’s car, killing their 11-year-old son, shows soldiers firing on the car as it was reversing, contradicting the army’s previous accounts of the events.
Last week Israeli forces shot and killed 11-year-old Mohammed al-Alami while he was in his father’s car with his two younger siblings, as the family were on their way home from grocery shopping in their town of Beit Ummar in the southern occupied West Bank.
At the time Israeli forces claimed that they attempted to stop the vehicle by firing warning shots in the air, and firing at the vehicle’s tires. The accounts of Mohammed’s father, and several eyewitnesses at the time contradicted the army’s statement, and said that the soldiers sprayed the car with bullets “out of nowhere,” and with no prior warning.
The new security camera footage, taken from two different angles near the al-Alami home where the shooting took place, seems to corroborate the account of the family and other eyewitnesses.
In the video footage published by B’Tselem, the car is seen approaching a street near the Israeli military outpost at Beit Ummar’s entrance. The street also leads to the entrance of the al-Alami family home.
The car is then seen slowing down, backing away, and turning around. This aligns with the account of al-Alami, who told Mondoweiss that as he was pulling onto his street, his son asked him to turn around to go back to the store so he could buy some sweets, to which he obliged.
As the car begins backing away, “for no apparent reason, soldiers standing by the post are seen running towards the car and opening a massive volley of fire at the passengers,” the B’Tselem report said.
Testimony from the family indicated that Mohammed was shot five times, and at least 13 bullets were fired at the car.
“The choice to open fire at the car, in the heart of a populated residential area, was unjustified, as none of the passengers posed a risk — to the soldiers or to any other person,” B’Tselem said.
B’Tselem noted that the army’s explanation that they fired at the car after suspecting it’s owners had buried a dead baby earlier in the day “has absolutely no bearing upon the shooting.”
“This heinous killing of an 11-year-old boy demonstrates, yet again, how low the value of Palestinians’ lives is in the eyes of the soldiers, their commanders and the policymakers – who are responsible for the military’s lethal open-fire policy,” B’Tselem said, adding that the army’s claims that an investigation has be launched is “merely a means of silencing criticism, and this kind of investigation is the first step towards whitewashing the incident.”
Mohammed al-Alami’s death marked the third Palestinian minor who had been killed by Israeli forces in the span of a week. He is the 11th Palestinian child to be killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank in 2021.
During al-Alami’s funeral, Israeli forces attacked the procession, sparking confrontations between armed forces and funeral-goers. During the confrontations, Israeli forces shot and killed another young man from Beit Ummar, 20-year-old Shawkat Awad.
They are stinking liars, from the top to the bottom of the rung, they lie, fabricate evidence, doctor tapes, and show cartoon bombs. They will get away with murder yet again. Are officials in the Biden administration, especially Blinken, going to ignore this crime too, and continue to support them? How many of times has Israel been able to get away with the lies, because there is no video tape to disprove their lies? Good for B’Tselem, they really do some great work.
BDS.
Every so often someone comes up with the brilliant idea of apartheid-lite as a solution – we’ll give the Palestinians some rights but they can’t vote in Israeli elections, can’t serve in the army and so forth. Well, this article gives the lie to that idea: as long as one group has power over another group this stuff will keep happening over and over and over. The only way to make sure the Palestinians aren’t abused is to give them the actual power to vote Israeli politicians out of office. Either that or a real state.
An illegitimate and boastful ‘country’, simply run by and of murderers lying again? Quelle surprise, eh? RIP to both Palestinians who were murdered by the IOF and others. Grant their families respect, justice, and my deepest empathy and condolences.