(Jenin) Israeli soldiers tied a wounded Palestinian to the hood of a military vehicle during an Israeli army operation in Jenin, according to army statements on Sunday, admitting that the soldiers had broken the rules of the army.
Images of this scene which occurred on Saturday have gone viral and show a man, visibly injured, tied across the hood of a jeep passing on a relatively narrow street.
D’après des sources médicales, il s’agit de Moujahid Raed Abbadi, 24 ans, un jeune homme originaire du camp de réfugiés de Jénine mais qui se trouvait chez des proches à Jabriyat, entre Burqin et Jénine, dans le nord de la Cisjordanie occupée.
« Au cours d’opérations antiterroristes visant à appréhender des suspects recherchés dans la région de Wadi Burqin, des terroristes ont ouvert le feu sur les troupes », a indiqué l’armée.
Au cours de cet échange de tirs entre les soldats et des personnes armées, l’armée israélienne explique qu’« un des suspects a été blessé et appréhendé ».
Il a été « attaché » au véhicule dans le cadre de son arrestation, avance l’armée, précisant que cette arrestation a été faite « en violation des ordres et des procédures opérationnelles standard ».
« Le comportement des troupes dans la vidéo […] is not consistent with the values” of the Israeli army, she adds in the same press release, specifying that an investigation will be carried out.
According to the army, the man strapped to the vehicle was later transferred to the Palestinian Red Crescent to receive necessary medical treatment.
” They were laughing ”
Mr. Abbadi told AFP that he had been injured by gunfire and remained unable to move for more than two hours behind an Israeli military vehicle.
When [les soldats] came up to me, they stepped on my head, hit me in the face, in the legs or on my hands, which had been injured, they laughed.
Moujahid Raed Abbadi
He said that these soldiers “lifted him up”, “threw him to the ground”, then “threw him onto the hood of a jeep” which he said was hot at the time.
Doctors at Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin confirmed to AFP that Moujahid Raed Abbadi was being treated at the establishment.
Mr. Abbadi “has a fracture” and “lesions”, he was “emergency operated on” and will have to be again, according to Bahaa Abou Hammad, a surgeon at the hospital.
“He has a burn on his back, from the neck to the lower back,” he added.
The city of Jenin and the surrounding refugee camps have for years been the scene of confrontations between the Israeli army and Palestinian armed groups.
The level of violence in the West Bank, which was already high before the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas erupted on October 7 after an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil, has only intensified since then.
According to the Palestinian authorities, in this territory under occupation for almost 60 years, at least 553 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers since the war in Gaza broke out.
Palestinian attacks killed at least 14 Israelis in the West Bank during the same period, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.