Middle East: Confrontation between Palestinians and Israel over the circumstances of a Palestinian’s death – Traffic or attack?

For months there has been tension in the West Bank, Palestinian territory that is held by the Israel since 1967, where the Israeli army ramped up its operations following a series of deadly anti-Israel attacks in March and April. Since then, it has launched over 2,000 raids in the West Bank. Assault with a knife or car accident that took a bad turn? Eyewitnesses who spoke to AFP dispute the police version Israel which killed last week in the occupied West Bank a Palestinian who, according to her, was armed with a knife.

Last Friday, near the Hougara roundabout, a crossroads between the Jewish settlements and the Palestinian city of Nablus, Amar Mufleh was shot dead after an altercation with border guards. The scene was filmed and posted on social media, causing a backlash USA and the UNwho requested an investigation.

“I am shocked by the murder of a Palestinian, Ammar Mufleh, during an altercation with an Israeli soldier near the Hugara roundabout,” commented Tor Venesland, a representative of UN for the Middle East.

For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid declared that he “fully” supports the management of the border guards, whom he described as “heroes” far right leader Itamar Ben-Gvir, who in his next government Israel may be appointed Minister of Internal Security and be in charge of this body of police active in the occupied West Bank. But what happened to Hougara? According to Israeli police, Muflech was killed after he tried to attack a pair of Israelis riding in a vehicle with a knife and then the border guards.

However eyewitnesses dispute this version, according to which the 22-year-old Palestinian was armed with a knife, and they talk about one quarrel due to a traffic accident. Abdullah al-Sattariya, a 30-year-old Palestinian man, is seen in the video trying to separate Muflech from the officer and then holding his head in shock after the officer was fatally shot.

Attack attempt?

According to the Israeli police, Amar Muflech tried to “enter the vehicle of an Israeli couple”. The car was locked, so he “tried to break the window with a stone and was fired upon by the driver of the car.” Muflech then tried, according to the police, to attack two police officers with a knife and managed to injure one.

The Israeli police released her image of a knife on the ground and that of a policeman with a wound near his eye. “I realized it was an attack”, one of the policemen said in an interview with the Israeli television network 12. Amar Muflech “tried to grab my gun, I shot him,” he added. “Nobody can judge what happened if they weren’t there,” he stressed.

In Osrin, the village where Muflech comes from, his family is waiting to be given his body, which is being held by the Israeli authorities. “Where is his body? Why do they keep it? Why;”Jinan’s mother wonders.