The Israeli human rights organisation, B'Tselem, has accused the Israeli army of murdering an "unarmed, wounded and neutralised" Palestinian resistance activist, reports Khaled Amayreh The incident was, said the organisation, an "extrajudicial execution". On 3 December Israeli soldiers arrested Mahmoud Abdul- Rahman Kamil in the village of Raba, southwest of Jenin. Within a matter of minutes he was dead. The Israeli army issued a terse statement claiming Kamil had been killed as he tried to flee from the house in which he had been hiding. The B'Tselem investigation, however, exposed the official version as a tissue of lies. According to testimonies gathered by B'Tselem, Kamil, who had been injured, remained fully conscious when Israeli soldiers stormed the house in which he was hiding. The soldiers then reportedly forced two Palestinians to bring Kamil's body to them. According to the B'Tselem report the two men spoke with Kamil, who told them his name and requested medical treatment. After the two handed the soldiers a pistol that had been in Kamil's possession they carried Kamil towards the soldiers. The two were then told to leave the area and a minute later they heard a sound of gunfire. The soldiers ordered one of the men to search Kamil to find his wallet. Kamil, reports the man, had been shot in the head. The man, identified as Mohamed Al-Bazur, gave the following account: "The soldiers told me and Suleiman [another witness] to leave, and Suleiman did. I walked away with the soldiers' guns aimed at me. I walked about 20-30 metres and then heard four or five shots. When I looked I saw Kamil's body jump up a bit... I went over to Kamil and saw that he was dead. He had been shot in the head, and blood was splattered on the ground." In response to the report the Israeli army conceded that the circumstances surrounding the death were "vague". According to army sources an unspecified number of soldiers from the naval commando unit, which killed Kamil, have been suspended from active duty pending investigation into the incident. An Israeli military spokesperson said that initial enquiries had shown that "troops made several mistakes in the incident". The latest episode follows a series of well-publicised cases in which Israeli soldiers have been caught red-handed, many on film, murdering Palestinians, civilians and activists alike. In October an Israeli soldier shot and killed a 13-year-old Palestinian school girl in Rafah while she was on her way to school. After shooting the girl the same soldier was shown returning to her body, some two dozen metres from his bunker, and firing an additional 20 bullets into her body in order to verify that she was dead. On Monday a high-ranking Israeli army commander told a Knesset subcommittee that one-fifth of Israeli soldiers did not see Palestinian lives as equal to Jewish lives. On Tuesday Israeli occupation troops closed down two charities in the Hebron area which locals say distribute food and money to the poor. The Israeli army said it had sealed the two Zakat committees, one in the small town of Dura, 10 kilometres southwest of Hebron, the other in the village of Bani Naim, just east of the southern West Bank City. Locals say the offices of the two committees were sealed by soldiers without officials being informed. Both committees operate under the supervision of the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Waqf and Islamic Affairs. According to ministry officials Zakat committees in the West Bank help families facing hardship, often through having lost their breadwinners. The charities also provide a network of cheap clinics and medical centres. Israeli authorities, though, accuse the charities of "identifying with Hamas" and helping families considered to be Hamas sympathisers. An Israeli army spokesperson described the charities as "an integral part of Hamas's social infrastructure", claiming that they "provide financial assistance to arrested terrorists and to the families of suicide bombers". The charges are denied by Dura Zakat Committee President Fathi Amr. "We are helping poor people, needy people, orphans, widows, children who go to school in the morning without taking a decent breakfast. We are doing what the apparatus of a state is supposed to do, but look what we get in return from the Israelis." The Israeli army has been carrying out a wave of raids on educational, charitable, philanthropic and medical institutions throughout the West Bank. Last week Israeli soldiers raided and vandalised the Ihsan House for the Mentally Disabled in Hebron, terrorising dozens of handicapped children. Officials at the Al-Ihsan Charity, the house's mother organisation, accused the soldiers of "barbaric behaviour befitting hoodlums, gangsters and common criminals".
