Weeks after shooting, IDF to investigate killing of Gazan double-amputee
29-year old paraplegic was killed during violent protests against Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital
By ANNA AHRONHEIMUpdated: JANUARY 5, 2018 05:34Ibraheem Abu Thuraya gestures during a protest against US President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, near the border with Israel in the east of Gaza City, December 15, 2017. (photo credit: REUTERS)
The IDF’s Military Police Investigations Division is opening an investigation into the death a Palestinian double- amputee during a riot on the Gaza border in mid-December, the army said on Thursday.According to a statement, the army received new information from organizations in the Gaza Strip and was therefore handing the case over to the Military Police to further examine the circumstances around the death of 29-yearold Ibrahim Abu Thurayya.UN condemns killing of disabled Palestinian protester in Gaza, December 19, 2017 (Reuters)The investigation into the December 15 incident was opened after an earlier IDF probe failed to determine how he died while protesting the decision by US President Donald Trump to recognize Jerusalem.In late December the Associated Press reported that it had received medical records detailed by the Palestinian Red Crescent showing that he had been struck by a bullet above his left eye and had died from bleeding in his brain. But the reports did not specify who fired the bullet or what caliber it was.On the day he was killed some 3,500 Palestinians demonstrated at nine locations along the border fence, burning tires and throwing stones at IDF troops. Abu Thurayya was seen in footage of the protest waving the Palestinian flag. According to a statement released by the IDF at the time, troops fired “selectively on the chief instigators of the extremely violent riots.”A statement released by the IDF after its initial investigation said it found that no live fire had been directed towards him during the dispersal of the riot and that it was impossible to say what had killed him.Abu Thurayya lost both of his legs in an Israeli air strike in 2009 and was a regular at border protests. Palestinian officials insist that he was killed by Israeli sniper fire, and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein decried his death, saying he was shot in the head.Maj.-Gen Yoav Mordechai, coordinator of government activities in the territories, denied the allegations on his Facebook page and called on the International Committee of the Red Cross to release its findings on his death.In response, Hamas posted on its Twitter page saying that the Red Cross “won’t be involved in the investigation.”At least a dozen Palestinians have been killed during rioting in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank since mid-December.
