Honenu has demanded that the commander of the Border Police in Judea and Samaria and the Israel Police Commissioner suspend the Border Police officer who shot and seriously wounded a teenage boy in the Benjamin region.
In letters sent by attorney Elad Weisel, who represents the injured youth, it was claimed that the officer shot the boy without cause and in violation of the law, and that his continued service poses a danger to the public. The attorney also appealed to the Police Internal Investigations Department, requesting that the officer be prosecuted.
In his letter, Weisel described the course of events, during which a Border Police officer in a civilian vehicle stopped near several youths close to Beit El in the Benjamin region and began shooting at them without justification. “The youths thought it was another officer arriving to deliver orders and turned to run back into the open area. At that moment, when the youths turned their backs to him, the officer aimed his weapon — a long M-16 rifle — and, without any prior conversation, call, instruction, or warning, opened live fire on the youths.”
He noted that “the Border Police officer fired four bullets at them calmly and in chilling silence. There was no legal justification for opening fire on the youths. This was unlawful shooting, completely unjustified and without cause.”
Weisel added that after the initial volley, the officer left the road, approached the area on foot, and “continued intensive fire toward the backs of the fleeing youths. It is estimated that at this stage he fired about 15 additional bullets at them, while they ran in panic, bent over, ‘like ducks in a shooting range.’”
One bullet struck the boy, entering his lower back, piercing his spinal column, shattering vertebrae, damaging lung tissue, and lodging in his left shoulder. The boy collapsed, but the officer continued firing at the youths even after they stopped running. Only when he approached the wounded youth did he cease fire, but “he took no action to save the boy’s life or provide any first aid. Assistance was given by his friends until an ambulance arrived, evacuating him urgently to the hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery and was hospitalized in intensive care.”
The attorney stressed: “This was the use of the most lethal police means against an unarmed minor who committed no offense, posed no threat to anyone, and for whom there was no justification — certainly no legal basis — to open fire.
“This was a deadly and illegal use of live fire, trampling the rules of engagement and showing deep and blatant disregard for human life. The incident ended with the boy’s serious injury and came within a hair’s breadth of ending in his death. The Border Police officer acted in a severe, illegal, and utterly unreasonable manner. An officer who allows himself to carry out wild, intensive, and deadly shooting at a minor settler without any justification is unfit to serve in a public position on behalf of the State of Israel — a position that grants him power, weapons, and authority,” he concluded.