The Israeli military, according to Israeli media sources, has admitted that its soldiers mistakenly killed Hamdan Tawfiq Arda, 60, after initially claiming that he had deliberately tried to ram his vehicle into soldiers, in the Industrial Zone in al-Biereh city, in central West Bank.
Eyewitnesses told Maan News Agency that it looked like a car accident, and that the driver was startled by the military presence, and tried to turn away from them.
Sources added that one soldier was lightly injured, but it was not from the car driven by the Palestinian man.
The soldiers fired a barrage of live rounds at the car, fatally wounding the driver, who suffered gunshot wounds mainly to the head.
His brain and fragments of his skull were on the car seat after he was removed by the medics, before they were collected for proper burial with his body later on.
The Israeli military initially stated was an “attempt to ram his car into soldiers”, and then changed their statement, telling the Jerusalem Post that they believed it was an accident.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has confirmed that its medics were at the scene shortly after the man was shot, and added that the soldiers stopped them and prevented them from approaching him.
The slain Palestinian man was from ‘Arraba town, near the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
The Israeli military had just finished invading the Industrial Zone, in an apparent search for the suspects of the killing of two Israeli soldiers earlier Thursday.
