Scene of the incident
Scene of the incidentMDA

After being questioned by the Police Investigations Department and released to house arrest for six days, the Samaria police have announced they decided to transfer the officer who shot several Israelis in Samaria a few weeks ago to an administrative role in a different district.

The families of the injured Israelis harshly criticized the release of the officer and the police's decision to only partially suspend him.

''Suspending the officer and transferring him to an administrative role outside the district - while our son and his friends are still in critical condition in the hospital - is an insult,'' said the parents of Yedidya Wassertheil, the critically injured teenager. ''Any officer or soldier who would shoot civilians at point-blank range without any reason should remain behind bars at least until the end of the investigation against them. But here it involves adolescents from Samaria towns whom the defense system apparently sees as less important.''

''There is no other way to interpret the officer's release without restrictions and settling for a disciplinary punishment, except as a conscious decision by the Israeli police and internal affairs to abandon us. Such an indiscriminate shooting at adolescents didn't happen in a vacuum, it's a result of a system-wide madness that sends the best soldiers to fight residents of Samaria as if they were enemies.''

''This was a shooting that should have shocked the foundations of the State of Israel, but is passing in silence because the injured adolescents wear Kippas and sidelocks. Anyone who stands idly by now bears responsibility for the next death, God forbid. Alongside the prayers and being next to our son, we will not rest and will not be silent until justice is served,'' concluded the parents.

The Israel Police stated ''An investigation is being conducted by the internal affairs unit into the officer's conduct, which has not yet concluded. At this stage it was decided by the police command to transfer the officer to an administrative role outside the jurisdiction of the Samaria district.''