Report By The Israeli Information Center For Human Rights In The Occupied Territories (B’Tselem): On Saturday, 21 September 2024, at around 3:30 A.M., several military and Border Police jeeps arrived on the main road between Kafr ‘Aqab and Qalandia Refugee Camp that leads to Ramallah. The jeeps drove against the flow of traffic, and stopped about 40 meters from the entrance to the camp.
Yasser Mteir. Photo courtesy of the family
At 3:40 A.M., a security camera captured a group of young men sitting at a cafe in Kafr ‘Aqab, a few dozen meters from the entrance to the camp. In the footage, they are seen following reports on social media that Israeli forces are in the area. One is seen waking his friend Yasser Mteir, 19, a resident of Kafr ‘Aqab who is asleep on a couch and warning him that the army is nearby. At this point, the youths leave the cafe and some turn onto the main road. Mteir is seen leaving about 10 or 15 seconds after his friends, at 3:42 A.M. According to the youths, they feared the forces would raid the cafe, as they did in previous raids, and therefore hurried to the main road. Some wanted to move their cars so as to avoid damage, and others wanted to watch what was happening on the road.
There is a 20-30 second section of the footage in which the young men are no longer visible, after they turn onto the main road. According to testimonies given to B’Tselem, they reached the road and stopped about 40 meters away from the jeeps. One of the jeeps then drove towards them and stopped about 20 meters away.
The right door opened, and a member of the force aimed his rifle at them. In the security footage, part of the original group of young men are seen running back toward the cafe at 3:43 A.M. Five seconds later, a single shot is heard.
According to testimonies, Yasser Mteir was hit in the abdomen by that bullet and fell to the ground. Two youths ran back to help him flee. A few seconds later, at 3:34, the wounded Mteir is seen limping toward the cafe’s alley, supported by two others. At the entrance to the alley, Mteir falls again. Soldiers then fire two teargas canisters at them, and his companions help him get up and run further into the alley. At that point, Mteir was put in a private car that drove him to the Palestine Medical Center, where he arrived within minutes.
Mteir underwent surgery immediately, and at around 10:30 A.M., he was transferred to the intensive care unit. About an hour later, he was pronounced dead.
In a response given to Haaretz journalist Gideon Levy, the Israeli army spokesperson claimed that “during joint activity of the security forces in the area of Qalandiyah and Kafr Akeb, a force responded with gunfire at a person who was throwing explosive devices. A hit was observed.” However, the footage and B’Tselem’s investigation cast doubt on the reliability of this version. The investigation found that there were no clashes at that spot between camp residents and Israeli forces at the time of the shooting, and found no indication that explosives were hurled. The footage obtained by B’Tselem shows cafe patrons, including Mteir, leaving the cafe with empty hands.
Mteir was fatally shot only 23 seconds after leaving the cafe. It is hard to accept the military’s claim that in these 23 seconds, Mteir managed to locate an explosive device and throw it at the forces. Moreover, no explosion is heard in the footage, nor was anyone hurt in the incident other than Mteir himself. No one was arrested in the incident.
* Technical note: The security camera’s clock was set to winter time. The time stamps mentioned here were adjusted to daylight savings time, which was in effect at the time of the incident – an hour later.
B’Tselem field researcher Mohammed Romaneh collected the following testimonies:
On 23 September 2024, B.A. recounted:
Just like every weekend, we were hanging out late at night in a cafe in the eastern part of Qalandia R.C. We were a few friends hanging out that night, and Yasser Mteir fell asleep in the cafe, which was about to close. When we heard the army was at the entrance to the camp, I went out to see what was happening. The entrance is about 40 meters from the cafe. A few of my friends followed me, and the last to come was Yasser.
We went to Ramallah Street, across from the main entrance to the camp. There were a lot of vehicles of Israeli forces on the road that leads to Ramallah, standing against the flow of traffic—facing the entrance to the camp. We were about 30 meters from the entrance and 30-40 meters from the force.
View from the main road of the alley from which Mteir and his friends came out. Photo: Mohammed Romaneh, B’Tselem
As soon as we got to Ramallah Street, a jeep that looked like it belonged to the Border Police, based on its color, drove toward us and stopped right in front of us, about 20 meters away. The front right door opened and someone sitting inside aimed a rifle at us. We ran back to the alley we came out of. As we were running, we heard a single shot, and when I turned around I saw Yasser fall down less than 10 meters away from me, with his back to the jeep. I ran back with another guy and we helped him get up. Yasser told me not to worry and that he was shot in the back of his right leg. I picked him with the other guy and we helped him run away. The jeep came towards us again, and the shooter was still aiming his gun at us.
When we reached the alley with the cafe, Yasser slipped from our hands and fell to the ground. Just then, the soldiers fired teargas canisters at us. We lifted Yasser again and moved him to a different spot in the same alley, about 25 meters from where he fell the second time. Then, a guy from the camp arrived in a car and took him to the Palestine Medical Center. He took on a side route to avoid the forces on the main road.
I followed them to the hospital. I got there around 3:52 A.M. A few minutes later he was taken into surgery. He came out at around 10:30 and the doctors then put him in the ICU. At 11:28 he was pronounced dead. We took him to his family in the camp so they could say goodbye. He was buried in the camp’s cemetery.
On 22 October 2024, A.A recounted:
I was sitting at the cafe with some other young guys. On Friday nights, we usually stay there until really late because most of us don’t work the next day. We saw on social media that the Israeli army was near the eastern entrance to Qalandiya R.C.
We immediately left the cafe, because soldiers have raided it in the past and arrested people sitting there. Once, special forces in civilian clothes came in, beat up everyone inside and arrested one guy.
My car was parked on the Ramallah-Jerusalem road near the Kalandia Training Center, so I went straight there. As soon as I got to the road, I saw a vehicle of the Israeli forces parked about 20 meters north of the entrance to the camp, roughly 35 meters from me.
As soon as I stepped onto the street, the vehicle started driving towards me. There were a few other guys nearby, including Yasser Mteir. Their cars were also parked on the road and they were there to move them.
The car from which Mteir was shot stopped at this point on the main road, opposite the entrance to the alley. Photo: Mohammed Romaneh, B’Tselem
The vehicle advanced towards us and stopped about 20 meters away. Then, the person in the passenger seat opened the door and pointed his rifle at us. We immediately turned and started running towards the Kafr ‘Aqab neighborhood.
After running about 10 meters, I heard gunfire behind me. I turned around to face the vehicle and saw Yasser Mteir lying on the ground, screaming. I ran back to him and lifted him up with the help of someone else. We carried him towards the cafe we’d been in earlier. When we reached the street corner by the cafe, Yasser slipped from our hands. We checked his body and saw he was bleeding badly. I realized the injury was bad.
While we were checking him, the Israeli vehicle moved closer to the entrance to Kafr ‘Aqab and hurled a teargas canister at us. We lifted Yasser again and moved him away from there, and then we took him to the hospital in a private car that arrived to help.
We reached the hospital at around 3:50 A.M., and the medical team immediately started resuscitating Yasser. After a few minutes, they took him into surgery. We waited there until he was transferred to the intensive care unit, after a complicated operation that lasted hours. At around 11:30 A.M., the doctors pronounced him dead.
