Palestinian girl fatally shot at Israeli checkpoint
Israeli forces killed a Palestinian girl at al-Zaayim checkpoint in the occupied West Bank east of Jerusalem on Wednesday.
Rights and Accountability 30 January 2019
Israeli police claimed that Samah Zuhair Mubarak attempted to stab a security guard at the checkpoint before she was fatally shot.
Israeli police claimed that Samah Zuhair Mubarak attempted to stab a security guard at the checkpoint before she was fatally shot.
The Palestinian Authority health ministry gave Mubarak’s age as 16, and media reported she was in the 11th grade.
No Israeli soldiers were injured during the incident, as in many previous cases in which an alleged Palestinian attacker was killed.
An Israeli police spokesperson tweeted a photo of the knife he claimed Mubarak had carried:
Female terrorist armed with knife attempted to stab security personal at security crossing azaim, Jerusalem. Terrorist shot. Units at scene.
Israeli police also released an edited video said to show parts of the incident.
Attempted stabbing attack in JLM: A 16 year old attacker, a resident of the West Bank, arrived at the az-Za'ayyem checkpoint and attempted to stab the security personnel with a knife. Quick response by the forces managed to neutralize her pic.twitter.com/vUO6vYcm1w— Israel Police (@israelpolice) 30 January 2019
The video shows a person wearing all black and carrying a backpack approaching the checkpoint.
It then shows an altercation from a distance in which a person appears to stumble or lunge forward, and then fall backwards onto the ground as if shot.
It then shows an altercation from a distance in which a person appears to stumble or lunge forward, and then fall backwards onto the ground as if shot.
The video is edited such that it does not show what happened in the seconds prior to the altercation and shooting.
It also shows a soldier handcuffing the clearly incapacitated Mubarak who is lying on the ground while another soldier points a rifle at her.
Medical aid denied
In many cases of alleged or actual attacks by Palestinians against Israeli soldiers, occupation forces have habitually used unnecessary lethal force – extrajudicial executions – against persons who presented no imminent threat or had ceased to present a danger.
“In some cases, Israeli officials have said Palestinians appeared to have carried out attacks or attempted to do so in order to be shot dead by Israeli security forces, as a form of ‘suicide by cop,’” the Times of Israel statedafter Wednesday’s shooting.
Local media reported that Israeli forces prevented first responders from providing first aid to Mubarak after she was shot.
None of the images released by Israeli police or those circulating on social media and seen by The Electronic Intifada appear to show any examination of Mubarak by medical personnel or life-saving efforts taking place.
Medical care is habitually denied or actively prevented for Palestinians shot by Israeli occupation forces.
In reference to such incidents in the past, Amnesty International has stated that it is “a basic duty under international law to provide medical aid to the wounded, and failure to do so – especially intentional failure – violates the prohibition on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.”
This video shows soldiers looking through Mubarak’s school bag after she was shot and finding only school books:
#شاهد لحظات إعدام جنود الاحتلال للشهيدة الفتاة سماح مبارك "16 عاما" الحافظة لكتاب الله على حاجز الزعيم شرقي القدس، وهي طالبة كانت تحمل حقيبتها المدرسية. pic.twitter.com/SOp37jN6Fq— وكالة شهاب (@ShehabAgency) 30 January 2019
Family shocked
A family member told Palestinian media that following the killing of Mubarak, Israel detained her father Zuhair Mubarak after summoning him for interrogation at Ofer military prison.
“We knew that Samah was going to school, and we were surprised by the news of her death. We do not know any other details about what had happened at the checkpoint.” the family member added.
Mubarak’s family is originally from the Gaza Strip, but lives in the occupied West Bank town of al-Ram, north of Jerusalem, where her father moved at the age of 18.
She is the third Palestinian child to be killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of 2019.
“Samah has a childish personality, she has no extremist thought or ideology, she comes from a religious family, we are all religious, and she would not do what Israel claims,” Samah’s uncle, Fathi al-Khalidi, told the publication Donia al-Watan.
Fatal tear gas canister
Meanwhile in Gaza on Tuesday, 47-year-old Samir Ghazi al-Nabbahin died from injuries he suffered during Great March of Return protests last Friday.
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said that al-Nabbahin was hit in the face with a tear gas canister fired by Israeli occupation forces.
On 14 January, another Palestinian in Gaza, 13-year-old Abd al-Raouf Ismail Salha, died from injuriessustained when he was shot in the head by an Israeli tear gas canister days earlier.
Al-Nabbahin was buried on Wednesday amid scenes of anguish:
قطاع #غزة يودع الشهيد سمير النباهين (47) عاماً والذي ارتقى بعد إصابته بقنبلة غاز بالرأس أطلقها الاحتلال شرق البريج.
At least five more Palestinians were injured by Israeli gunfire on Tuesday as they participated in a weekly march in the north of Gaza against Israel’s maritime blockade of the territory.
Tamara Nassar contributed research.
