Haaretz
Elul 3, 5765
An investigation by
Haaretz and the human rights group B'Tselem repudiates the army's version
of events concerning the August 24 operation in which five Palestinians
were killed by Israel Defense Forces fire in the refugee camp of Tul
Karm.
The official IDF announcement described the late-night
undercover operation as follows: "Five terrorists from the terror network
responsible for the attacks at the Stage club and [Hasharon mall] in
Netanya were killed in Tul Karm." That announcement, which later changed
several times, termed Anas Abu Zeina, 17, "an accessory to wanted
militants"; Adel Abu Khalil (Al-Gawi), 26, "a senior Islamic Jihad
operative"; and Majdi Atiya, 18, somebody who "engaged in preparing
explosive devices and participated in attacks against IDF
forces."
However the material collected by Haaretz and B'Tselem
reveals that the three teenage boys killed - Abu Zeina, Mohammed Othman,
17, and Mahmoud Ahadib, 17 - are not known members of any terrorist
organization. The two adults killed were low-ranking operatives who did
not behave like wanted militants and were unarmed at the time. They were
shot by the soldiers at short range, from 10-15 meters away, while they
were in a largely-enclosed courtyard. Witnesses say they heard the
soldiers shout at the group "Stop" and "Don't move," but that seconds
later the soldiers opened fire without giving the men a chance to turn
themselves in. Some scattered in every direction, and some were killed on
the spot.
Witnesses report that in several of the cases the
soldiers proceeded to confirm the kill with close-range shots. In contrast
to the IDF's claim, witnesses say there had been no exchange of fire in
the vicinity, nor were Molotov cocktails thrown at the troops.
The
witnesses do report that shortly before the operation began, senior wanted
militants had passed by the site, including the camp's Hamas chief Ribhi
Amara, who spotted the operation beginning and fled into a side alley, and
a policeman from the Palestinian Authority's Force 17, Mushir Mansuri, who
also managed to escape into an inner courtyard, toss his licensed gun and
flee.
A. owns a store adjacent to the scene of the incident. At
around 11:15 P.M. that night he was sitting at the store's entrance with
his 3-year-old daughter, when he saw a long white van with Palestinian
plates and curtained windows. "The moment it stopped, soldiers jumped out
but I had a hard time seeing their uniforms. They sprinted toward the
concrete structure next to the courtyard where the fatalities occured and
began shouting. Seconds later they opened fire. At that point other
soldiers had already run toward me and ordered me to lie face down on the
ground. I hugged the child tight and didn't budge until it was all over,"
A. said.
P. lives about 50 meters from the site in an apartment
overlooking the courtyard. "I was on the roof when I heard the shouting
and then the shooting," he told investigators from B'Tselem. "I looked
down and saw soldiers on both sides of the building shooting into the
courtyard. I saw the youths fleeing in every direction and the soldiers
approaching Abu Khalil, who was lying face down. I had just seen them
shoot at him from up close when I heard a burst of gunfire on the wall by
my side, and I drew back. Only later did I look again and was able to see
the bodies. The soldiers continued shooting at the adjacent houses so
nobody would come near."
From this and other testimony it emerges
that the soldiers took cover on either side of the concrete building, and
after shouting they opened fire into the courtyard. There were two groups
in the courtyard at the time. One group, close to the entrance of Ahadib's
house, included Ahadib, Atiya, Abu Khalil and the Force 17 man, Mansuri. A
few meters from there sat teenagers Abu Zeina and Othman, along with
several of their classmates from the camp's high school.
One of the
boys present was Tariq Zayit, 17. "We stood and talked. Anas had brought
invitations to his brother's wedding, which was two days later, and
everyone was in a good mood and eating sunflower seeds. And then we heard
the shouts. Everybody jumped in fright, and I turned around and began
running. When I got out of the courtyard into the alley, I felt that my
hand was hurt and bleeding, but I kept running. I heard only later what
happened to the others," said Zayit.
Abu Khalil was killed on the
spot. Ahadib's mother heard the shooting from inside the house. After
everything was over she peeked out and saw her son's body through the
door. Atiya made it to the alley but collapsed and died of his wounds.
Mansuri, who had been closest to the courtyard door, ran into the alley,
threw away his sidearm and fled over a nearby fence. Abu Zeina also jumped
into the alley at the courtyard's south side, but collapsed and died of
his wounds. His friend Othman collapsed in the alley across the way and
was taken to Meir Hospital in Kfar Sava, where he later died of his
wounds.
After the initial shooting stopped, additional troops
entered the camp as reinforcements.
Palestinian security officials
deny IDF claims that the three teenagers, who lived at most 150 meters
from each other, had had any connection to terrorist organizations or
assisted wanted militants. Anas Abu Zeina was a high school student who
worked in a vegetable store in the Tul Karm market and had never been
arrested. His older brother Ziad is in prison in Israel for membership in
Fatah. Neither was Mohammed Othman known to have any connection to an
organization. His father works in construction in Israel.
Mahmoud
Ahadib's father, Mohammed, says that the IDF could have taken his son into
custody easily if it had wanted to. "Mahmoud had been wearing a diaper
lately because he was incontinent. He has epilepsy and received treatment
in the past at Rambam hospital in Haifa, and he never took part in the
activity of any organization," he said. "They prefered to kill him like
his older brother Rami, who was killed in the camp a year and a half ago."
As for the two adults in the group, there are doubts whether the
level of "wantedness" the IDF ascribes to them accords with the facts of
the matter. Atiya's family is known to support Fatah, as do at least half
the camp's residents. His father, nicknamed "the traffic light," is a
known Fatah activist, but he himself was not considered an activist at
all, let alone a bombmaker or senior operative in the
organization.
Abu Khalil is the only one who had previously been
active - in Islamic Jihad - but he turned himself in to the PA a few weeks
ago and even used to sleep at police stations for protection. His name is
on the wanted list for the Tul Karm region, but Islamic Jihad sources
insist he had left the organization before he was killed.
In
response to this report, the IDF declined to state categorically whether
any of the five men killed had been armed and opted to refer generally to
armed men who were in the camp at the time of the operation.
The
IDF rejected outright confirming any kills.
After repeated requests
for clarifications on whether any of the suspects had ever been arrested
for hostile activity, military sources claimed that three of the dead had
such records - Abu Khalil, Atiya and Abu Zeina.
The sources said
unofficially that "it is impossible to know for sure whether there were
weapons on all the wanted men because the IDF was not the first to reach
them."
The IDF Spokesman's Office issued the following statement:
"The IDF operated in the camp in order to arrest senior wanted militants
from the Islamic Jihad network that recently launched major attacks on the
Israeli homefront, Judea and Samaria and is working to launch additional
attacks. During the activity, the force, uniformed and with IDF
identification markings, surrounded a number of wanted men, some armed.
The force conducted the full procedure for arresting a suspect, called on
the wanted men to turn themselves in and fired a shot in the air. Despite
the attempt to arrest them, the wanted men began fleeing. Other terrorists
in the area opened fire and tossed explosives and Molotov cocktails at the
force. In the course of the arrest attempt, four terrorist operatives were
killed - a senior wanted militant and three accessories. As of now, it is
not possible to point to the involvement in terrorism of a fifth [man] who
was with the wanted [men], who was transferred to an Israeli hospital and
later died of his wounds. As is customary in such cases, the chief of
staff ordered a probe that has not been completed yet. The IDF will
continue to invest efforts in the face of attempts by Islamic Jihad to
perpetrate attacks in cooperation with Hezbollah."
Amos Harel adds:
A senior IDF officer told Haaretz on Tuesday that undercover Duvdevan
troops came to the camp to arrest a group of wanted militants, primarily
Abu Khalil of Islamic Jihad and Ribhi Amara of Hamas. Amara left the
courtyard about two minutes before the troops entered it. Advance
intelligence indicated that at least three of the wanted men were armed
with guns. The officer denied reports of confirmed kills, but said that in
one case, when it was feared that one of the wounded in the courtyard was
trying to draw a gun, he was shot again from a distance of 10
meters.
The army's probe also relied on analysis of aerial footage
taken from a drone. "The descriptions of people lounging around are simply
not true," the officer said. "Everyone who was hit, was hit inside the
courtyard with a group of wanted militants. There were no innocent
pedestrians hit in the street."