AN autopsy conducted on Sunday morning has shown that 30-year-old Muhammad Ismail Atallah Tarifi, who was found dead on the roof of a commercial building in Ramallah earlier in the morning, was shot dead by Israeli troops.
According to the autopsy, the victim died of a bullet fired from an M16 assault rifle, which is used by Israeli forces.
The autopsy came after a controversy erupted regarding the circumstances of his death, which occurred amid an Israeli army raid in the heart of the central West Bank city of Ramallah.
Immediately after the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the area following a number of home raids and detentions, locals began throwing stones at the Palestinian police headquarters in anger for the police’s withdrawal from the streets in order to allow Israeli forces to raid at will.
Some media outlets and social media activists claimed earlier on Sunday that Tarifi was shot dead by Palestinian security officers in the ensuing clashes, and his family and the Islamic Jihad movement with whom he was affiliated demanded an autopsy to determine who was responsible.
These rumours gained credence after a widely-circulated video appeared to show Palestinian security forces using live fire against demonstrators.
But seven empty casings of M16 bullets have been found on the roof of a building 40-50 metres away from the roof where Tarifi was found.
Furthermore, Muna al-Dalou, a woman who lives in an apartment in the building, said that about 20 Israeli soldiers had stormed the building and fired gunshots from the roof at Palestinian protestors during the raid.
Undersecretary of the Palestinian ministry of prisoner affairs Ziad Abu Ein said he was following up closely with the autopsy.
The tests, he affirmed, proved without a doubt that Tarifi was shot by Israeli snipers. Abu Ein added that Tarif’s body would be delivered to his family at the Ramallah Medical Complex.
The body was being taken to Jamal Abdul-Nasser mosque in Ramallah for a funeral prayer in the afternoon, followed by a funeral procession to a cemetery in neighbouring al-Bireh.
Tarif is the fifth Palestinian shot dead by Israeli forces last week, as they mount the largest military deployment in the West Bank since the end of the Second Intifada in search of three missing Israeli teenagers.
Although Israeli authorities have claimed the group were kidnapped by Hamas from the Jewish-only settlement of Gush Etzion near Bethlehem, Hamas has denied the charges.
In the ten days since, Israeli forces have arrested nearly 400 Palestinians, the majority associated with Hamas, and raided more than 1,000 locations across the West Bank, vowing to ‘crush’ Hamas.
The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said that Israeli forces detained 38 Palestinians from the West Bank districts of Hebron, Bethlehem and Jenin on Sunday morning.
The Prisoner’s Society report contradicts an earlier Israeli military statement that said only nine Palestinians were arrested in overnight raids across the West Bank.
The society’s report means that nearly 410 Palestinians have been detained by Israeli forces since the beginning of the massive arrest campaign.
Israeli forces have consistently given lower figures for the number of detainees and have not given locations of their detentions, while the Prisoner’s Society maintains lists with full names of all Palestinians detained.
The 38 names are as follows:
Hebron:
Mahmoud Yusri al-Uweiwi; Abdullah Ideis; Shadi Raed Abu Omar; Fawzi Ismail Sweiti: Jihad Ismail Sweiti; Adil Idris; Aziz Ismail al-Hroush: Abdullah Ideis: Abdul-Karim al-Qawasmi: Mahmoud al-Uweiwi; Ayyub Hussein al-Awawda; Yousif Srour; Karam Amr; Ayman Jweilis; Iyad Hisham al-Sahib; and Muatazz Zawahda.
Bethlehem:
Nasser Shukah; Suhayb al-Asa; Ibrahim Shuebat; Ibrahim al-Sahouri; Taha al-Wahsh; Saeb al-Wahsh; Ahmad Makhtoub; Ahmad Ibrahim Ali; Younis al-Asa; Khalil Radayda; Sayf Aqil Rabayaa; Harith Abu Amriyya; Abdullah Issa Shuebat; Bassam Abu Dayyah; Husam Abu Dayyah; Muhtasib al-Asa; Muhammad al-Asa; Ghassan al-Asa; and Ahmad Mustafa al-Asa.
Jenin:
Muhammad Jabri Ghanamah; Adnan Imad Abu Hasan; and Muhammad Adnan Kameel.
The Israeli occupation army at dawn on Sunday launched four aerial attacks on different areas of the Gaza Strip, with no reported casualties.
Local sources said that Israeli warplanes bombed two resistance sites belonging to Al-Qassam Brigades of Hamas to the southwest of Deir Al-Balah and to the east of Khan Younis. Two other air raids targeted a resistance site belonging to Al-Quds Brigades of Islamic Jihad to the southwest of Khan Younis and another site to the north of Rafah in Gaza.
Witnesses said that three airstrikes occurred before dawn prayers and another one happened as Gazans were heading to mosques for dawn prayers.
The aerial aggression caused widespread panic among the population in Gaza. Meanwhile, at 0458 gmt on Saturday, the Palestinian Safa website reported that Naji Ali Suf, 60, ‘was martyred while trying to prevent the occupation forces from raiding his house in the village of Haris, north of Salfit in the West Bank.’
The report cited local sources as saying that Suf died of a heart attack in a Qalqilyah hospital. The report went on to say that the Israeli army made arrests in different locations in the West Bank.
In the Hebron area, IDF arrested, among others, the following former prisoners: Muhammad Isma’il Abu-Arqub, Hudhayfah al-Awawidah, Isma’il al-Nattah, and Tariq Aziz Ighrayb. The troops raided the offices of the charitable society in Sa’ir, east of Hebron.
In Ramallah and Al-Birah, large Israeli forces clashed with youths, raided a charity in the Batn al-Hawa neighbourhood, and the offices of PalMedia.
Two Palestinian youths were hit by rubber bullets. The report adds that ‘in clashes that erupted in the refugee camps of Al-Am’ari and Qalandiya near Ramallah, the occupation used live ammunition and stun grenades against youths who pelted the soldiers with stones and empty bottles.’
In Bethlehem the Israeli soldiers arrested 16 citizens and stormed the offices of the association for orphans. The report further said that ‘clashes started at dawn on 21 June, as occupation forces raided the city of Jenin and its refugee camp, set up ambushes, and deployed snipers on the rooftops.
‘The occupation forces raided the Arab American University in Al-Zababidah for the second time in 24 hours.’
• A 15-year-old was killed and at least five others seriously injured when a blast hit a vehicle traveling in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Sunday morning.
The blast, which marks the first time an Israeli has been killed in the Golan Heights since the outbreak of the imperialist-backed Syrian counter-revolution and civil war more than three years ago, occurred near the Israeli settlement of Tel Hazeka near the ceasefire line with Syria.
The blast hit a vehicle belonging to a Defence Ministry contractor employed by the Israeli army to reinforce the border fence, according to Israeli news site Ynet.
The victim was a Palestinian citizen of Israel from the village of Arraba in the Galilee region, and Israeli news site Ynet reported that he was joining his father to work when the blast struck their vehicle.
Israeli forces responded by shelling the Syrian side of the ceasefire line. Mortars have occasionally struck the Golan Heights from Syria as a result of fighting between government forces and jihadist terrorists across the border.
Israel has responded to these hits with return fire, and has at times closed areas near the border as a result of fighting near the ceasefire line between pro- and anti-government forces.