Israeli minister defends police officer who fatally shot Palestinian child in East Jerusalem

JERUSALEM

Israel’s far-right Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Wednesday defended a police officer who killed a Palestinian child in the occupied East Jerusalem.

A 13-year-old boy was killed by a border police officer in the Shuafat refugee camp on Tuesday night.

Israeli police said the child was killed after he shot fireworks “directly” at security forces. Footage of the incident, however, showed the fireworks being fired into the air.

The police officer was summoned by the Department of Internal Police Investigations (DIPI) for questioning on the boy’s death.

“It is outrageous to me that DIPI even dared to invite the fighter here for questioning,” Ben-Gvir said as he arrived at the DIPI office to lend support to the Israeli officer.

“It is shameful and disgraceful.”

The far-right minister claimed that the questioning is “destroying Israeli deterrence” and “harming combat police officers.”

Tensions have been running high across the occupied West Bank since Israel launched a deadly military offensive against the Gaza Strip after a cross-border attack by Hamas last October.

At least 433 Palestinians have since been killed and more than 4,700 others injured by Israeli fire, according to the Health Ministry.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in an interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza, where nearly 31,300 people have been killed.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul