BEIT RIMA, West Bank — Shocking security camera footage from a West Bank village captures the moment a young man is shot and falls to the ground. The video shows two others rushing to his aid, only to also be hit, leaving a 17-year-old dead. This happened just moments before Israeli military jeeps rolled in.
An examination of the video and interviews with the two wounded survivors revealed that Israeli soldiers opened fire on the three individuals when they did not seem to pose a threat. The fatal shooting in the village of Beit Rima is the latest in a series of incidents where soldiers appeared to fire without provocation, a trend Palestinians say has worsened since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza three months ago.
The Israeli military claimed that troops entered Beit Rima as part of a “counter-terrorism operation” and fired at suspects who threw explosives and firebombs at them. However, the video obtained from a local smoke shop did not show anyone throwing explosives.
After reviewing the footage, a military spokesperson said soldiers reported that one of the Palestinians was igniting a Molotov cocktail when he was shot. However, the video shows that the first shot does not hit the kneeling man, but rather another Palestinian man, Nader Rimawi. Nader told the AP that the object was a stack of cardboard boxes and scraps of paper that 17-year-old Osaid Rimawi had gathered and was preparing to light to keep the men warm.
In interviews with the AP, the wounded village residents denied having thrown explosives and said the shootings, about 2 a.m. Friday, were unprovoked. Two of the six Rimawi brothers were in the town square when word spread that Israeli soldiers were in the village.
The video footage shows four armored Israeli vehicles arriving about 2 minutes after the shooting and roughly a dozen soldiers getting out, guns prone. They gathered around Mohammed and left the wounded Palestinians on the ground, driving away without making any arrests.
Palestinian health officials said 340 Palestinians have been killed in the three tense months since Hamas attacked southern Israel, prompting a blistering air and ground campaign on the Gaza Strip by Israel. Israel tightened its grip on the West Bank through near-nightly, often deadly, raids. Israel says the crackdown is aimed at Hamas and other militant groups.
The victims’ brothers, Mohammed and Nader, are recovering from their wounds, with the latter undergoing surgery for injuries to his thigh. Osaid, a high school student studying to become a barber, was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.