Screen grab, via Twitter.
On December 2, an officer of the Israeli Border Police shot and killed a Palestinian man who alleged carried out a stabbing attack in the northern West Bank town of Hawara.
The Border Police said in an initial statement that one of its teams was operating in Hawara when the suspect attacked with a knife and managed to wound an officer, adding that the suspect was later “neutralized” by other officers.
In a later statement, the police said that the suspect tried to enter a vehicle with an Israeli couple in. While trying to break through the locked door, one of the occupants, an off-duty military officer, shot and apparently wounded the man with his handgun. The suspect then ran at a nearby Border Police officer and stabbed him.
Footage posted to social media showed a lone Border Police officer attempting to apprehend the suspect. The officer then pulls out a handgun and fires four times from point-blank, killing the suspect on the spot.
The officer wounded in the stabbing attack was evacuated for medical treatment, as was the officer who later killed the suspect.
Palestinian media identified the alleged attacker as 22-year-old Ammar Hamdi Muflih, who was previously impassioned in Israel. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad mourned Muflih in a statement, describing his death as a “brutal execution”.
Tensions have been high in the West Bank over the past year, which saw repeated operations in the occupied region by the Israeli military and security forces. During the operations, more than 2,500 Palestinians were arrested and at least 150 others were killed.
The killing of Muflih, which has already led to a backlash from Palestinians, could encourage more attacks on Israeli troops in the West Bank.
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