IDF kills Arab-Israeli near checkpoint; locals slam 'trigger-happy' conduct
Driver from east Jerusalem shot dead after he ignores soldiers' warning shots; army says he tried to run troops over; soldier lightly wounded in incident. Sur Baher's mukhtar says security forces 'taking law into their own hands'
IDF soldiers shot dead Tuesday morning a man who did not heed their calls to stop his vehicle for inspection at a checkpoint near Mevo-Beitar, located south of Jerusalem.
According to the army, 23-year-old Walid Tawil of east Jerusalem's Sur Baher neighborhood was shot after he broke through the checkpoint. One soldier sustained very mild wounds during the incident.
An initial investigation into the incident revealed that Tawil, who arrived at the checkpoint at around 6 am, did not stop his vehicle when he was ordered by the soldiers to do so. The Arab-Israeli continued through the checkpoint, and an IDF jeep chased him to a nearby gas station. A soldier then stepped out of the jeep and was hit by the vehicle while attempting to approach the driver. Another soldier fired warning shots in the air and then opened fire at the driver.
Tawil sustained critical wounds and was treated at the scene, but his death was pronounced a short while later.
Investigators at scene of shooting (Photo: Gil Yohanan)
A paramedic who was dispatched to the scene told Ynet that at around 6 am the Magen David Adom emergency services received word of a shooting incident near a gas station located by Mevo Dotan, a Jewish settlement in the West Bank.
"When we arrived at the scene we found the man dead inside his car. Security forces said he tried to run over soldiers," said the paramedic.
Tawil's family members admonished what they called the IDF's "trigger-happy" conduct on the part of Israeli security forces when Arabs are involved.
Zuhir Hamdan, the mukhtar of Sur Baher said Tawil "was not a terrorist. He was a good man – a young man who worked for a living. He was not problematic, did not belong to any organization affiliated with Fatah or Hamas. He simply wanted to live.
Hamdan said the incident was not the first in which Arabs are killed without any proof that they had planned on carrying out a terror attack.
"The army and police are taking the law into their own hands with the government's authorization," said the village head, "The lives of all Arabs here are at risk, and this must end."
A few days prior to that incident, three Border Guard officers were lightly inured when a resident of the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sur Baher tried to run them over as security forces were razing the home of the terrorist who carried out the first bulldozer attack in the capital.
