JERUSALEM - An Israeli soldier who killed a Palestinian toddler in a car two weeks ago thought he was shooting at gunmen, the army said on Wednesday, blaming a mix-up caused by another soldier firing in the air in violation of regulations.
Two-year-old Mohammad al-Tamimi suffered a fatal head wound in the June 1 shooting near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. His father was hit in the shoulder. The Palestinian foreign ministry demanded accountability, deeming the incident a crime.
Publishing the results of its investigation, the Israeli military repeated previous assertions that Palestinian gunmen had fired at soldiers guarding a Jewish settlement that night.
An army officer searching the area saw a "suspicious vehicle and fired several times into the air", prompting a soldier who heard those shots to open fire on Tamimi’s car, believing the gunmen were using it for their getaway.
The investigation faulted commanders for miscommunication and "incorrect decision-making", the statement said, adding that the officer who fired in the air would be reprimanded for violating standing orders.
The Palestinian foreign ministry, in a statement, deplored the findings as
"the clearest and ugliest form of disregard for, and legalisation of, the shedding of Palestinian blood".
The West Bank, among territories where Palestinians seek statehood, has experienced a surge of violence over the last 15months.
A report by Israeli rights group Yesh Din based on military data from 2017 to 2021 found that Israeli soldiers were prosecuted in less than 1% of hundreds of complaints filed against them on alleged offences against Palestinians.
Disciplinary measures
in a seperate case, Israel's Military Advocate General said on Tuesday that soldiers who left a Palestinian-American man outside overnight after detaining him and who was later found dead will not be criminally prosecuted but will face disciplinary measures.
Israeli forces detained 78-year-old Omar As'ad at a makeshift checkpoint in his West Bank hometown of Jiljilya in January, 2022. The soldiers left him supine and unresponsive at a construction site, saying they assumed he had fallen asleep. He was later found dead in the early morning with a plastic zip-tie still around one wrist.
The military said As'ad had "loudly and persistently" resisted attempts by Israeli soldiers to lead him from his car to the security checkpoint. Due to his refusal to cooperate, the soldiers temporarily gagged him with a strip of cloth and cuffed his hands with a zip tie, it said.
Following an initial probe, the military dismissed two officers and reprimanded a battalion commander over As'ad's death, which it said resulted from "a moral failure and poor decision-making".
On Tuesday, the army's chief legal body said in a statement its decision was made "following the hearings and after a thorough examination of the investigation materials, which indicated no causal link was found between the errors in the conduct of the soldiers and (As'ad's) death".
A Palestinian autopsy found that As'ad, a former Milwaukee, Wisconsin, resident who had a history of heart problems, had suffered cardiac arrest caused by stress. Palestinian officials attributed this to him having been manhandled by the Israeli soldiers.
The Military Advocate General said a military medical official found it impossible to determine that As'ad's death was caused specifically by the soldiers' conduct, and that the soldiers could not have been aware of his medical condition.
It said the military laments As'ad's death "and works to prevent the recurrence of such incidents".
Washington at the time said it was "deeply concerned" and expected "a thorough criminal investigation and full accountability".
Palestinian leaders have called for the soldiers involved to be prosecuted in an international court.
REUTERS