JERUSALEM — An initial inquiry suggested that a Palestinian whose beating by soldiers was caught on video died from tear-gas inhalation, the Israeli military said Friday, ahead of a planned autopsy.
However, Channel 10 TV on Friday evening said the autopsy, attended by a Palestinian doctor, showed he died from gunfire. The military said it was aware of that report but had no further comment.
The incident under investigation by the military took place early Thursday during a raid in the West Bank town of Jericho.
The army said in a statement that the Palestinian ran at them with an iron bar. It said “in response to the threat soldiers fired toward him but he was most likely not hit.” Soldiers then “used force in order to subdue the suspect,” the statement added.
In a security camera video, several soldiers are seen kicking and beating the man with rifles while he is on the ground.
The army statement added that the Palestinian’s condition deteriorated when he was later exposed to tear gas fired by soldiers trying to disperse Palestinian protesters. The man was later identified as a 33-year-old Jericho man who, according to relatives, did not suffer from health problems.
The daily Haaretz also reported that the autopsy revealed a gunshot wound in the stomach.
Meanwhile, Palestinians staged protests Friday in more than a dozen West Bank locations and on the Israel-Gaza border after Muslim noon prayers, the army said. Protesters threw stones and firebombs and rolled burning tires toward soldiers who responded with tear gas and “selective fire at main instigators,” the army said.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said 22 Palestinians were hurt along the Gaza border, most by rubber bullets and some by gunfire that hit people’s legs. In the West Bank, 13 Palestinians were wounded, eight of them by live fire and the others from rubber bullets, according to the ministry.
Palestinians have staged regular protests since President Donald Trump’s recognition in December of contested Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and his pledge to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as a future capital and view Trump’s decision as a sign of a pro-Israel bias they say disqualifies Washington from a continued role as the sole Mideast broker.