Abu Yehuda

Were two Palestinian teenagers shot to death in cold blood by Israeli soldiers on May 15, nakba day?

Palestinians say that video evidence shows that two youths were shot far from any action, when they were not threatening soldiers or Border Patrol officers in any way. This is in effect an accusation of murder.

While we don’t know (yet) for certain what did happen, it seems clear that the Israelis that were accused of shooting them did not do so — and most likely they were not shot with an Israeli military weapon.

There are two videos in question. One is taken by security cameras at a nearby business, and another was taken by a Palestinian cameraman working for CNN, Kareem Khadder.

Nadeem Nouwareh

The security camera footage shows two Palestinians falling to the ground (about 73 minutes apart). It does not show their faces. The first one is Nadeem Nouwareh (also called Nadeem Abu Qaraa in some reports).

Nouwareh, who is supposed to have been hit in the chest, falls forward and puts his hands out to break his fall. Experts say that this is unlikely, that someone hit in the chest with a high-powered bullet will normally be pushed back by the force of the bullet.

The Khadder video shows a nearby Israeli position. The camera shows one of the Border Patrol officers firing and then quickly pans to the location of the Palestinians, where they are seen rushing to pick someone up and put him in an ambulance. It does not show either of the two being hit.

The weapon used by the Border Patrol officer has a rubber-bullet cassette clearly visible on the barrel. The cassette holds the rubber bullets, which are propelled by firing blanks from the rifle’s normal magazine.

While it is possible to fire live ammunition with the cassette in place, the sound of the shot is quite different, and would have been noticed by everyone at the post. Unless there was a conspiracy including all the Israelis present, this did not happen.

CNN’s broadcast includes an interview with Nouwareh’s father, who displays a bullet he says was found in Nadeem’s backpack after it passed through his body.

The spent bullet that is displayed looks like a 5.56 mm bullet of the type that is used by Israel (and also by the weapons supplied to the Palestinian security forces by the US). Bullets like this can be picked up at firing ranges around the country.

The bullet, which supposedly penetrated Nouwareh’s chest, exited his back, and then was stopped by a hard object (like a book) in the backpack, is only slightly deformed. An expert interviewed by Israel’s Channel 2 — and another that I spoke to — both said that it was certain that under these circumstances it would have been crushed almost flat.

The backpack has a small hole and a small bloodstain on it. Inside, the father displays a book that appears to have a red substance wiped across it. I can’t see how the bullet would have carried that much blood inside, or why it would be smeared across the page.

Mohammad Odeh Salameh

The second victim is Mohammad Odeh Salameh (initial reports gave his name as Mohammad Mahmoud Odeh Abu Daher), said to be hit in the back with the bullet exiting his chest. In the poor quality security video, he appears to be hit, falls to his knees, and then rolls over. The CNN broadcast shows a still picture of him on the ground, apparently after the shooting, taken by Palestinian photographer Atef Safadi. Here is a screen capture from about 2:48 into the broadcast:

Atef Safadi photo of Mohammad Odeh Salameh on the ground

This photo corresponds to the point 1:45 into the security video when the photographers rushed up to take pictures. The person in dark clothes is the first one to reach Salameh, possibly a doctor. He is seen throwing down a black bag and then kneeling. He appears to move Salameh around, feeling his chest and back, possibly searching for wounds. Absolutely no blood is seen anywhere.

Another Safadi picture (not in the CNN broadcast) shows Salameh a moment later. There is still no blood visible on his clothes or the hand of the man in dark clothes, who is apparently holding it over the exit wound:

Photo of Salameh a few moments later. Still no blood.

The 5.56 mm bullet of the type used in the Israeli weapons visible in the Khadder video has a tendency to tumble and fragment in the body, especially if it hits bone, as is likely if it passes through the chest either from the front or the back. It would make a small entry hole, an expanding wound channel and a large (several inches) exit wound. Bleeding would be profuse, and a large amount of force would be transferred to the body, knocking it away from the direction of impact. None of this was visible in either case.

A photographer interviewed by Ha’aretz adds more complexity to the story:

Agence France-Presse photographer Abbas Al Momani told Haaretz that the Israeli forces at the Beitunia incident had split into two groups.

“Some of the troops, mostly Border Police, took position in a high building overlooking the road, some 50-to-60 meters away [these are the ones in the CNN video -ed.]. Another group was in the prison parking lot, and they were even farther away, more than 150 meters away,” he said.

Momani said that during the demonstration, dozens of youngsters hurled rocks at the troops, who retaliated with rubber bullets and smoke grenades. “The youths were hit when things had calmed down. That’s why I and my colleagues were sitting in the shade, rather than standing at the scene. We felt the incident was winding down. There were a few dozen boys still at the site, most of them school students,” he said.

Momani said the photographers can distinguish rubber bullets from live fire. Throughout the incident, the soldiers shot rubber bullets, but “the live bullets came in isolated shots,” he said.

“We heard the shots well, but I can’t say if they came from the troops in the building or the other group. But there’s no doubt that during the shooting, there was no confrontation, and the youths did not approach the soldiers,” he said.

Conclusions [updated 5/28]

The security video could be a ‘Pallywood’ production like the al-Durah hoax in which no one was actually killed. At first, I suspected that two different Palestinians were killed that day, in direct confrontation with the IDF, perhaps throwing firebombs, and the video was an attempt to prove that two teens had been shot for no reason. But the IDF did not report any such incident and insists that no live ammunition was used anywhere that day.

There was a funeral, and apparently two Palestinians were buried. The first still photo taken by Atef Safadi appears (despite the ski mask) to at least superficially resemble the one of Salameh taken at the funeral (he is the one in the back, draped with the green Hamas flag). The still seems to fit well with the security video. The original photo should be examined carefully by experts, but it appears not to be photoshopped.

So I conclude that the security video probably does show at least one Palestinian who was killed. But who shot him, and when?

The fact that 1) live fire at the Israeli post would have been immediately noticed (and the shooter arrested for a serious violation of rules of engagement and probably charged with murder), as well as 2) the way the victims fell when hit, and 3) the lack of any signs of blood or an exit wound on either of them, all argue that they were not shot with live ammunition by the soldiers at the post.

Were they shot by a sniper at another location, Israeli or Palestinian? Who were the “other group” photographer al-Momani referred to? If they were “at least 150 meters away” it would be hard to tell. Autopsy data about the direction of the wounds combined with the security video might clear this up, as well as the type of weapon used.

If the shooters were Palestinians, that would imply that Palestinians are monsters. But isn’t that what they are saying about us?

Update [26 May 2014 0956 PDT]: See Elder of Ziyon’s analysis here. He argues that Nouwareh’s fall was consistent with being hit in the leg with a rubber bullet, there is a mark on his right pant leg that could have been caused by such a bullet, and that the timing was right when compared to the CNN footage of rubber bullets being shot from the Border Patrol position. One expert that I spoke to also said that the way his right leg stiffened when he fell was characteristic of someone hit in the leg by a rubber bullet.

Elder of Ziyon sums up thus:

Now, what happened afterwards? I have no idea. If I am right – and I am convinced I am, at least in Nawarah’s case – then you have no choice but to say that either he was shot after this incident in the chest, or another dead body was buried, and either this isn’t Nawarah or that other person isn’t Nawarah.

Update [28 May 2014 2220 PDT]: Elder of Ziyon analyzes new footage which very persuasively points to an orchestrated ‘Pallywood’ production. All the facts aren’t in yet — we still don’t know who, if anyone, was killed — but the latest information is here.

As more evidence comes in, it appears increasingly unlikely that two Palestinian youths were shot in cold blood by Israeli soldiers (actually, Border Patrol officers) last Thursday.

CNN has broadcast video that purports to show a Border Patrol officer firing at Palestinian teens immediately before one falls to the ground and is taken away in an ambulance. Later, his father produces a bullet that he says was found in the boy’s backpack, which passed through his chest and killed him. Watch the video here.

Open and shut, right? Not exactly. I talked to an Israeli firearms expert, and here is what he told me:

1. The Border Patrol officers are shooting rubber bullets that are used for crowd control. They are not capable of penetrating the body at the range they are being fired from. We know this by the devices fitted to the barrels of the rifles — these cassettes contain the actual rubber bullets which are propelled by blanks fired from the gun’s regular magazine.

If the rubber bullet cassette had been empty and if the officer had replaced the blanks magazine with one containing live ammunition, then he could have fired a live bullet without removing the cassette. But everyone at the position would have heard the sound of the shot, which is very different from that of a blank propelling a rubber bullet. The Border Patrol officer would have been in very serious trouble, facing a murder charge if his target died. Unless all the soldiers were in on a conspiracy, this didn’t happen.

2. The bullet that the father of the victim said had been removed from the backpack was a 5.56 mm bullet such as is used by the IDF. But it was only slightly deformed. If it had passed through a person’s chest and then was stopped by books in a backpack, it would have been completely crushed. “That bullet looks like it was fired into sand,” the expert said.

3. The surveillance camera video shows the boy falling forward and putting his hands out to break his fall. A person hit by a bullet in the chest is shoved backward by the force of the bullet, his shoulders move forward and his chest is compressed. He falls on his back. The way the boy falls is consistent with someone hit in the leg by a rubber bullet.

Some of these points (particularly the description of the bullet) are also made in an Israeli Channel 2 broadcast (in Hebrew) which can be seen here. [See update below for version with English subtitles]

The most likely explanation is that the two Palestinians who died did so in a direct confrontation with the IDF or Border Patrol somewhere else. A firebomb is considered a deadly weapon, and they might have been shot trying to throw them. The teenagers in the video, then, were either injured non-seriously by rubber bullets, or faking for the camera.

The reports said that four Palestinians were shot, two injured and two died. Not much has been said about the ones who were only injured. Perhaps they were the ones in the video?

Update [23 May 0912 PDT]: Here is the Israeli Channel 2 report with English subtitles added:

Bodies of two Palestinians killed on May 15, 2014, wrapped in Hamas and PLO flags

The nakba-day shooting of two Palestinian ‘children’ has grown legs and is galloping around the world.

Both the UN and the US are demanding “transparent” investigations by Israel. The US State department has even tweeted its “condolences” to the families (can you imagine Israel demanding that the US investigate its drone-killings of Pakistani noncombatants, or expressing its condolences to the families of al-Qaeda terrorists it does kill?)

Given the multitude of of ‘Pallywood’ productions — fake videos used to impeach the IDF created by the Palestinians and distributed by gullible (often deliberately so) media — it behooves us (and the US State Department as well) to be extremely suspicious of such ‘evidence’ of Israeli atrocities.

It appears to be true that two Palestinians (whether they were ‘teenagers’ is  unclear) were shot dead last Thursday. But it is not at all certain that the video that was distributed shows the actual shooting, or the actual individuals who were shot.

The video appears to show two Palestinian youths, apparently far from any action, suddenly falling down. There are many aspects of it that raise questions: the way they fell, the lack of blood, the relationship of the reported wounds to the direction the fire is supposed to have come from, the way bystanders immediately rush in (unafraid of further shooting) and call cameramen over, etc.

Before convicting the IDF of murder, let’s consider the very likely possibility that two young men (one of the accounts puts one’s age at 22, and Hamas has claimed one as a member) were killed in a direct confrontation with the IDF — and the video was faked by actors in order to give the impression that innocent children who posed no threat were shot down in cold blood.

Frankly, I don’t believe the vicious lie that the IDF deliberately targets children — a case of projection if I’ve ever seen one, by the folks who gave us the Ma’alot massacre (22 children), the Bus of Blood (13 children), the Dolphinarium bombing (21 children), and who fire anti-tank missiles at schoolbuses (1 child). So I am much more likely to believe that the video is a fake.

I agree, therefore, with the US that there should be a complete and transparent investigation. The dead Palestinians are probably already buried, but if necessary they should be dug up, identified and autopsied. Evidence must be collected from the scene(s) and witnesses interviewed by investigators (and not only by pro-Palestinian media).

Yes, it would cause pain to the families. But IDF soldiers have been accused of deliberate murder of innocent children. That causes pain too.