Relatives of Abdel Fattah al-Sharif to seek compensation for ’emotional distress’ over killing last month
The family of the Palestinian attacker in Hebron who was shot dead by an Israeli soldier last month after appearing to be incapacitated, has threatened to sue the State of Israel over the killing.
The uncle of the assailant told Army Radio Tuesday that the family intended to file suit against the state for “emotional distress” caused by the killing, which was caught on tape.
The incident prompted a national debate about the IDF’s rules of engagement and its use of force in regards to Palestinians.
The soldier under investigation, whose name has been withheld by a gag order, was filmed shooting 21-year-old Abdel Fattah al-Sharif in the head on March 24, minutes after Sharif and another assailant stabbed and moderately wounded a soldier in Tel Rumeida, an Israeli enclave of the West Bank city of Hebron. The two assailants were shot — one was killed while Sharif was wounded — by an army officer during the course of their attack.
The soldier, who shot and killed Sharif some 10 minutes after he’d already been incapacitated and disarmed, was arrested by military police, but since Friday has been out of jail and held in supervised detention on an army base, amid a roiling political scandal over his actions and the army’s response.
He was arrested after video of the incident emerged.
Al-Sharif’s uncle called on the Palestinian Authority to return his nephew’s body to the family for burial as soon as possible, according to Army Radio.
An autopsy performed in Israel earlier this week found that al-Sharif was killed by the soldier’s bullet and was only wounded at the time he was shot, according to a Palestinian doctor who attended the examination.
“After a full autopsy, the fatal wound was in the head,” the Palestinian doctor, Rayan al-Ali, told AFP.
“There were several gunshot wounds. All those wounds were in the muscles, the lower limbs, and there was a wound in his right lung, but it was not fatal and did not lead to his death.”
Israel has not yet released the results of the autopsy.
The soldier is set to appear before an appeals court later Wednesday to determine the conditions of his detention pending investigation, Army Radio reported. He is currently on “open” supervised detention on a military base. A military appeals court on Tuesday upheld the decision of a lower court, rejecting the prosecution’s request to send the soldier back to jail.
Prosecutor Adoram Reigler told the court Tuesday that the military had gathered enough evidence to move forward with a manslaughter charge against the soldier, the Ynet news website said.
Right-wing politicians and the soldier’s family have claimed he was being “lynched” by the media, and demonstrators have called for him to be released.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon leveled harsh criticismTuesday at the soldier’s supporters.
The defense minister said he was “very worried about what has happened since the incident. Those who back such a soldier do not support the law or our values.”
According to the army, the soldier said before shooting the surviving Palestinian stabber that he should be killed, and told his commanders afterward that the assailant had deserved to die.
The soldier, who maintains that he shot al-Sharif because he feared there were explosives on his person, said in his defense in court: “I saw him move his hand and head. I didn’t shoot for no reason. I wouldn’t have fired if I didn’t feel I was in imminent danger.”
“If there had been an explosive belt, I’d be in the cemetery now, not in the court,” he said. “These Military Police investigators are in an office, not in the field where they can be shot at.”
“I was emotional, and in a split second I decided to shoot,” Ynet quoted the soldier saying Tuesday.
The prosecution maintained that there was no evidence to support the soldier’s claim, pointing out that he didn’t warn anyone of a possible explosive charge, and showed no signs of distress afterwards. But in his decision to relegate the soldier to his base rather than send him to jail, the judge said he couldn’t rule out the soldier’s account.
As reported by The Times of Israel