In the midst of Ramadan, Israeli police shot and killed an Arab Israeli medical student near the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem. Blur or attempted attack? An investigation has been opened by the police.
The incident took place around midnight (9 p.m. UT Friday) near the Chain Gate, one of the accesses to the Esplanade of the Mosques, in East Jerusalem, Palestinian sector of the Holy City, annexed by Israel. For the Israeli police, there is no doubt that this is an act of terrorism. After being arrested, Mohammed al-Assibi, a 26-year-old medical student from the Bedouin community of Hura in the southern Negev desert, reportedly grabbed a policeman’s gun and fired two shots , without hitting anyone, before being shot himself.
The problem is that still according to the Israeli authorities, there is no video recording of the scene in an area which is nevertheless covered with surveillance cameras, reports our correspondent in Jerusalem, Michael Paul. The police still claim that the young man had become radicalized recently.
A contradicted version
The family of Mohammed al-Assibi, angry, rejects the thesis of the attack and affirms that he was killed while he had just prayed in the mosque of Al Aqsa. The Israeli Arab Raam party (moderate Islamist), represented in Parliament, also rejected the police version, noting Facebook posts of “ witnesses saying the incident took place when Assibi came to the aid of a woman arguing with the police. The Supreme Committee of Israeli Arabs demands the establishment of an independent commission of inquiry under the direction of a judge. It also calls for demonstrations on the Esplanade of Mosques and a general strike in all Arab localities in Israel this Sunday.
The incident came after a huge crowd of Palestinian worshipers gathered at the Esplanade of Mosques on Friday for the great midday prayer on the second Friday of Ramadan. Israeli police, who guard the entrances to the esplanade, said more than 100,000 worshipers had gathered there and more than 2,000 police had been mobilized across the city.
► To read also: Report – Ramadan begins under high tension in Huwara, a Palestinian town at the heart of the violence
(And with AFP)