Jerusalem – The Israeli military said on Friday that initial findings of an investigation into the death of a man that Palestinians say was severely beaten in custody showed that he may have died from inhaling teargas used to disperse attackers.
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The Palestinian man died soon after a confrontation on Thursday with the Israeli troops in the West Bank town of Jericho and the Palestinian Authority condemned it as a “cold-blooded execution”.
Israeli military police are probing the incident and a detailed report will be issued, possibly next week, a military spokeswoman said.
In security camera footage posted on social media and also carried by Israeli news sites, soldiers could be seen kicking and striking a man on the ground after detaining him. He was identified by Palestinian officials as Yassin Omar Al-Saradeeh.
The statement said that during the confrontation with some 50 Palestinians “who threw firebombs and rocks and rolled burning tires” at the troops, they used “riot dispersal means adjacent to the area where the suspect was held, and it appears (he) was exposed to gas which may have caused his death.”
A post-mortem examination was being performed on the body at Israel’s National Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv on Friday in the presence of a Palestinian doctor, a Palestinian official said.
The army said that an initial check by “an Israel Defence Forces medic declared his medical condition normal” but that it later deteriorated.
The military statement said troops had “used force in order to subdue the suspect” and that despite shots being fired towards him, “he was most likely not hit.” When asked, the spokeswoman declined to say what that the use of force entailed.
The military said on Thursday that the man was armed with an iron rod and ran towards the soldiers in an attempt to strike them. The troops, it said, were on a raid to arrest “suspects” in Jericho.
The Palestinian Information Ministry said about 20 soldiers had administered a “heavy beating” to Saradeeh, especially on his stomach and back.
So warped and weak. The question is, why aren’t the Israelis shooting at these murderers. Israel has been spending millions of dollars and resources dealing with these rioters. They allow these animals to riot, what does Israel get in return? Injuries and deaths to Israeli soldiers and civilians, putting their soldiers at risk, and giving the message that we will subdue the riots until the next one. If Israeli policy would be to shoot these rioters who are throwing rocks and such which is fatally dangerous, the riots would’ve ended years ago. Instead, this goes on and on. Anti Semitic photographers taping on the sides and making Israel look bad. This is dumb, weak and warped.
yamsar is happy, otherwise he would want the soldiers put in jail for fighting back, yamsar says how dare Jews fight back, the ghetto/Diaspora mentality is weakness on top of weakness I doubt Putin puts any soldier on trial for killing a terrorist.