Video: B'tselem releases footage of IDF commander shooting Palestinian stone-thrower

Left-wing NGO says video proves Col. Israel Shomer violated rules of engagement.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Updated: JULY 12, 2015 19:06
B'tselem releases footage of IDF commander shooting Palestinian stone-thrower
Video emerged on Sunday of the incident last week in which Binyamin Brigade Commander Col. Israel Shomer shot and killed a 17-year-old Palestinian youth who threw rocks at his car near a-Ram, adjacent to Ramallah in the West Bank.
Left-wing NGO B'Tslem, which released the clip of Shomer shooting at 17-year-old Muhammad al-Casba, said that the video proves that the IDF commander violated the proper rules of engagement.
According to B'Tselem, the clip shows Shomer's IDF jeep stopped near the a-Ram junction immediately after it was hit with a stone. Two soldiers can be seen exiting the jeep and giving chase after the suspect who threw the stone. The remainder of the chase and the weapons fire which killed Casba take place outside the frame of the security camera footage and are not documented in the clip.
Military investigators opened an investigation into the incident at the beginning of this month. An IDF source said that an investigation is automatically launched in every instance involving a death.
Palestinian authorities claimed that Casba was shot in the back at least three times. However his body was not taken for an autopsy to verify the claims.
At the time of the incident an IDF source said that Shomer "reacted exactly as expected given that the incident presented an immediate risk to life.”
The attack on the commander’s vehicle had been planned in advance, the source said.
Shomer also won the backing of a number of Israeli politicians at the time of the incident. Both Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid emphasized that stoning attacks had killed Israelis in the past and IDF soldiers need to be able to defend themselves.
Noam Amir contributed to this report.