Military says 15-year-old died and four others were wounded in West Bank after soldiers mistook them for stone-throwers

Israeli troops have shot dead a 15-year-old Palestinian boy as he travelled home from a family outing, after opening fire in response to stone-throwing in which the boy had not been involved.

A preliminary investigation by the Israeli military found that the car the boy was travelling in had been “mistakenly hit” as the soldiers chased Palestinian stone throwers who had injured an Israeli bus passenger and two tourists in another vehicle. The shooting near the village of Beit Sira was angrily condemned by the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah.

The military said that at around 1am firebombs and rocks had been thrown and oil spilled on to the busy Route 443 between Jerusalem and Modi’in. The road, which is often used as an alternative route between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, cuts through the occupied West Bank where it is overlooked at points by Palestinian villages.

The Palestinian Authority, who named the dead boy as Mahmoud Rafat Badran, from the village of Beit-Uhr-Eh-Tahta, said that three other Palestinians also injured were treated at a medical centre in Ramallah, and a fourth wounded person had been taken to Israel for treatment.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted the boy’s father as saying that Rafat was travelling back with relatives, including the boy’s aunt, from a trip to a swimming pool in Beit Sira that had started after the fast-breaking Ramadan evening meal.

The road they had taken goes through an underpass under Route 443, he said, adding: “As they approached the passage, a car stood on the bridge, next to a man with a gun who opened fire on the vehicle. As far as I could understand, some of the passengers jumped out of the vehicle and some remained inside, and were hit, including my son who was very seriously wounded and died a short time later.

“This was indiscriminate gunfire with the intent to kill and I demand that this incident be judged by the world court,” Badran said. Saeb Erekat, general secretary of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, said that the boy had been “murdered” in a “cold-blooded assassination” as he was returning “from the only nearby swimming pool”.

The Israeli Defence Forces said: “Overnight, three civilians were injured after a number of Palestinians hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at moving vehicles near the village of Beit Sira on Route 443.

“Nearby forces acted in order to protect additional passing vehicles from immediate danger and fired towards suspects. From the initial inquiry it appears that uninvolved bystanders were mistakenly hit during the pursuit. The IDF is investigating the circumstances.”

Israel relaxes live-fire rules against Palestinian stone-throwers Read more

New measures pushed through last year by the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, gave the security forces much greater latitude to use live ammunition against Palestinians throwing stones and firebombs. A minimum three-year jail sentence was later introduced for stone-throwers.

The Israeli military also yesterday demolished the home in the West Bank village of Hajjah of a Palestinian, Bashar Masallha, who killed an American tourist and wounded 10 Israelis in a stabbing attack in Tel Aviv in March.



