Six months after Boaz Albert, the deputy chief of security at Yitzhar settlement, shot to death Palestinian teen Salman al-Safdie, police believe the have made a case of manslaughter, if not murder.
Due to settlers’ obstructions, including preventing investigators from reaching the scene of the shooting to collect evidence, investigators failed to establish the full chain of events that day.
Albert claims he shot Al-Safdie in self-defense when the later came in through an olive grove and reached Albert’s residence. But police suspect the Palestinian teen was shot in the back far from that scene.
Al-Safdie was found a few dozen meters from Albert’s house, fatally wounded. He died shortly afterward, in an ambulance that settlers delayed from leaving the settlement.
From the start, Police investigators have worked on the assumption that it was a terror attack on the settlement.
Police investigators became suspicious as settlers prevented them from entering Albert’s home, where the shooting presumably took place, to collect evidence.
When police were finally allowed into Albert’s house, they did find a shell casing, but there was no evidence linking it to the shooting.
‘Presumably various elements were interested in obstructing the inquiry,’ said a source involved in the investigation.
Also Police and security forces investigations found no records linking Al-Safadi to any terror activity or groups.
On the other hand, Albert was found to have been involved together with other settlers in an armed robbery of sheep from a Palestinian who lives in a nearby village.
The Palestinian identified Albert and the sheep were found in the settlement. When police tried to remove the sheep, they were attacked by settlers.
