Soldiers attacked during arrest raid; IDF launches investigation into Palestinian report that 21-year-old killed by IDF fire.
By YAAKOV LAPPINIDF soldier in Jenin during Operation Defensive Shield 390 R(photo credit: REUTERS)
Soldiers sent to arrest four security suspects near Jenin clashed with Palestinian rioters, who threw improvised bombs at the soldiers as they drove out of a village overnight Wednesday.The Palestinian news agency Ma’an cited medical sources as saying that 21-year-old Ahmed Imad Yusef was killed on the spot, hit in the chest by a bullet.As the IDF launched an investigation into the incident, but military sources said the man might have been hit by Palestinian gunfire.The arrests and subsequent clashes occurred in the village of Kabatiya, southwest of Jenin.An IDF source said that after the four suspects were arrested, army jeeps exiting the village came under sustained attack from rocks and homemade explosives, and the soldiers felt their lives to be under threat.The troops used non-lethal crowd dispersal means, and fired three shots into the air, the source said.“We’re checking reports that a Palestinian was hit,” the source added.The man killed was not on the list of wanted security suspects.Army sources are checking two possibilities; either one of the soldiers provided false testimony and did in fact shoot Yusef, or Yusef was hit by Palestinian gunfire.“The arrests went smoothly,” the source told The Jerusalem Post. “The soldiers came under attack at the exit stage of the operation.”
