A senior UN official has said Israel’s killing of a Palestinian wheelchair user protesting against Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was “incomprehensible”, as Israel said the man had not been targeted.
A statement issued by Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said Ibrahim Abu Thurayeh was shot in the head by Israeli security forces close to the Gaza border fence on Friday.
Hussein said there was nothing to suggest Abu Thurayeh posed an imminent threat when he was killed, and “the facts gathered so far by my staff in Gaza strongly suggest that the force used against [him] was excessive”.
The statement said: “Given his severe disability, which must have been clearly visible to those who shot him, his killing is incomprehensible – a truly shocking and wanton act.”
The Israeli military said its own investigation had found it was not possible to say what had killed Abu Thurayeh and that no live fire had been directed at him during the dispersal of the violent demonstration.
“No live fire was aimed at Abu Thurayeh. It is impossible to determine whether Abu Thurayeh was injured as a result of riot dispersal means, or what caused his death,” part of the military statement said.
It said protesters hurled explosive devices and rocks and rolled burning tyres “with the aim of harming soldiers and destroying security infrastructure”, and that its forces mainly used non-lethal riot dispersal means, although a few live rounds fired under supervision were aimed “towards main instigators”.
The military statement said “numerous requests” for information on Abu Thurayeh’s wounds had not been answered by Palestinian officials. “If additional details are received, they will be examined and studied,” it said.
Gaza medical officials said on Friday that Israeli troops had shot dead four people, including Abu Thurayeh, and that 150 others had been wounded by live fire during protests.
Most of the casualties were on the Gaza Strip border. In the West Bank, the Israeli military said about 2,500 Palestinians took part in riots against soldiers and border police officers.
Abu Thurayeh, 29, was a regular at demonstrations. In media interviews, he had said he lost both legs in a 2008 Israeli missile strike in Gaza.
Hussein’s statement said the Israeli response to Friday’s protests had resulted in five people being killed, including three in Gaza, and more than 220 injured by live ammunition. He called for an independent investigation.
He said international law strictly regulated the use of force in the context of protests and demonstrations, and the lethal use of firearms should be employed only as a last resort when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life.
Trump’s announcement on Jerusalem infuriated the Arab world and upset western allies. The status of the city has been one of the biggest obstacles to a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians for generations.
Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be its capital. Palestinians want the eastern part of the city as the capital of a future independent state of their own.
“These events … can sadly be traced directly back to the unilateral US announcement on the status of Jerusalem, which breaks international consensus and was dangerously provocative,” Hussein said.