This video posted by the news agency PalMedia shows a young Palestinian woman left to bleed on a sidewalk in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron after she was shot by Israeli soldiers last Tuesday morning, The Electronic Intifada reports.
By evening, Palestinian media reported that the woman, 18-year-old Hadil Salah Hashlamoun, had died of her injuries.
Instead of being given immediate medical treatment, the video shows her being pulled roughly out of the frame of the camera, her scarf coming off as her head drags on the ground.
Israeli settlers and soldiers can be seen standing around, and in some cases smiling and laughing in the background.
Wattan TV reported that the young woman was left to bleed for more than 30 minutes.
The Israeli army claimed that she was shot after she tried to stab a soldier, the Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz reported. But photos and eyewitnesses contradict this account.
An Israeli army spokesperson said that the incident had occurred around 8am at the so-called Container Checkpoint near Shuhada Street, Ma’an News Agency reported.
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The spokesperson said the woman approached the checkpoint in order to carry out the attack and Israeli forces responded with gunfire.
The army said that the young woman was treated on site by Israeli medics and then taken to hospital.
One eyewitness, a European activist, told The New York Times that Hashlamoun had simply opened her purse to allow it to be inspected, at the request of a soldier.
“When she was opening at her bag, he began shouting: ‘Stop! Stop! Stop! Don’t move! Don’t move!’” the activist said. “She was trying to show him what was inside her bag, but the soldier shot her once, and then shot her again.” Several more soldiers raced over and also fired at her.
A second witness, 34-year-old Fawaz Abu Aisheh, told the Times that Hashlamoun appeared “frozen” and in shock. Abu Aisheh said he had opened a gate inside the checkpoint so that Hashlamoun could back away from the soldiers. She tried to do so.
“Even if she had a knife, she would have to leap over a barrier about a meter high to reach a soldier,” Abu Aisheh added. “There were six or seven soldiers with heavy weapons. There was no need for that assassination.”
The Times said it had seen photos corroborating these accounts. Abu Aisheh appears in some of the images.
