Mustafa Nimr who was shot dead by Israeli policemen in the Shoafat refugee camp last month was shot from around a meter away according to a Wednesday report by Israel’s Channel 10 News.
According to the report Nimr was hit by two bullets when he was sitting in a car driven by his relative Ali Nimr.
According to the indictment against Ali Nimr as he approached the checkpoint police flagged them down with a flashlight and signaled that the road was closed and that they should turn back but instead Ali accelerated. The police later backtracked on this story and accused him of a traffic violation.
Police fired sponge-tipped bullets at the car but Ali sped up and rammed through the checkpoint apparently after losing control on his vehicle. Ali was charged with causing Mustafa’s death even though it was police gunfire that killed Mustafa and wounded Ali as well.
During a hearing in Ali Nimr’s case the Jerusalem Magistrate Court wrote that an examination of Mustafa’s body showed he was shot in the head by two bullets “from what looks like a meter away.”
Human rights groups have often sounded the alarm over the extra-judicial murder of Palestinian anti-occupation youth by the Israeli occupation army often from a very close range.
