Ash-Sharqia (West Bank): The fatal shooting of an American-Palestinian teen driving a pickup truck in the West Bank was unprovoked, the sole passenger told The Associated Press, describing apparent Israeli fire hitting the back of the vehicle before it overturned several times on a dirt road.
At least 10 bullets struck the truck, which was seen by The Associated Press after Israeli investigators examined it. Most hit the back windshield and truck bed, supporting 16-year-old Mohammed Salameh’s account of the incident that killed his friend, Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, 17, a Louisiana native.
In an initial statement, Israeli police said Friday’s shooting targeted people “purportedly engaged in rock-throwing activities along Highway 60”, a main West Bank thoroughfare.
Police didn’t identify who fired the shots but described the incident “ostensibly involving an off-duty law enforcement officer, a soldier and a civilian”.
Salameh denied suggestions he and Abdel Jabbar had been throwing stones and said there had been no attempt to arrest him.
Salameh — interviewed on Tuesday along with Abdel Jabbar’s father, Hafeth, in the family’s ancestral village of Al-Mazra’a Ash-Sharquiya — said he and his friend were driving on a dirt road several hundred metres from Highway 60. He said shots suddenly hit the back of the truck, striking Abdel Jabbar.
Salameh said the pickup overturned several times, and he managed to get out and run back to the village for help.
Hafeth Abdel Jabbar said that when he arrived, he found his son’s lifeless body in the pickup, amid shattered glass and blood stains. He rejected claims that his son had thrown stones as “a big lie”.
Even if the teens had thrown rocks, he said, they posed no imminent threat — to police, military, or civilians — as they drove through the brush.
An Israeli police official told AP on Wednesday that the witness account and bullet holes in the back of the truck represented only one side of the story and that the investigation is ongoing. He declined to comment further. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorised to discuss the case with news outlets.
The White House has demanded a transparent investigation into the death, which came after repeated US warnings that Israel must rein in rising violence against Palestinians in the territory.
The teen’s family said US embassy officials visited the village, photographed the car and interviewed relatives.
