Fatal shooting of Palestinian by Israeli police caught on video

Israel’s paramilitary border police said an officer killed a Palestinian assailant in the occupied West Bank on Friday after they wrestled over a weapon. Dramatic amateur video captured the moments the officer fired the fatal shots, and the Palestinian dropped to the ground.

The video, widely shared on social media, was a rare documentation of one of the increasingly common violent incidents involving Israeli security forces and Palestinians, including assailants.

Rising Israeli-Palestinian tensions have made 2022 the deadliest year in the long-running conflict since 2006. Further escalation is likely, as the most right-wing and religious government in Israel’s history is poised to be installed in coming days or weeks, with former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu returning to power.

Friday’s violence took place along a busy thoroughfare in the town of Hawara, south of the West Bank city of Nablus. Police said the assailant carried a knife and tried to break into the car of an Israeli couple before the driver, who was an Israeli soldier on leave, shot and wounded him.

The assailant then moved toward border police patrolling nearby, stabbing one in the face, police said. The commander of the unit tried to arrest the assailant. Amateur video shows the commander putting the Palestinian man in a choke hold, as two other Palestinians try to pull him away from the officer, to no avail. The video shows the Palestinian man grabbing the officer’s assault rifle which then drops to the ground. The officer pulls a pistol from a holster and fires four shots. The young man falls to the ground and is later pronounced dead.

More than 140 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian fighting this year. Israeli says most Palestinians killed have been militants. But stone-throwing youths protesting Israeli army incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.

Friday’s violence came against the backdrop of months of Israeli arrest raids in the West Bank, prompted by a spate of Palestinian attacks against Israelis in the spring that killed 19 people. The military says the raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks, but the Palestinians say they entrench Israel’s openended occupation, now in its 56th year. A recent wave of Palestinian attacks against Israeli targets killed an additional nine people.

Earlier Friday, dozens of Israeli peace activists toured Hebron, the West Bank’s largest city, in a show of solidarity with Palestinians, amid chants of “shame, shame” from ultra-nationalist hecklers.

The encounter came a month after the strong showing of far-right factions in parliamentary elections and reflected the widening rift among Israelis over the nature of their society and the fate of the occupied territories.

In coalition agreements, Netanyahu has already handed key authorities in the West Bank to ultra-nationalist faction leaders, including former fringe figure Itamar BenGvir, known for his anti-Arab rhetoric. The new roles include oversight of Israeli settlement construction and the paramilitary border police, often deployed in Palestinian population centres.

Further escalation is likely, as the most right-wing and religious government in Israel’s history is poised to be installed in coming days or weeks, with former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu returning to power