Video appears to show the Israeli army shooting three Palestinians and killing one without provocation

The half-hour security camera video begins about twenty minutes before the shooting, with men gathering in small groups and walking in and out of frame as cars come and go.

BEIT RIMA, West Bank: Security camera footage from a West Bank village shows a young man standing in a central square when he is suddenly shot and falls to the ground. Two others who rush to his aid are also hit, leaving a 17-year-old dead just before Israeli military jeeps roll in.

An Associated Press review of the video and interviews with the two wounded survivors found that Israeli soldiers opened fire on the three even though they did not appear to pose a threat. One of the wounded Palestinians was shot a second time after he stood up and tried to jump away.

Last week’s fatal shooting in the village of Beit Rima is the latest in a series of incidents in which soldiers appeared to shoot without provocation, a trend that Palestinians say has worsened since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza three months ago.

The Israeli military said troops entered Beit Rima from Thursday to Friday as part of a “counter-terrorism operation.” It said troops shot at suspects who threw explosives and firebombs at them.

The video, obtained by the AP from a local smoke shop, does not show anyone throwing explosives.

After reviewing the footage, a military spokesman said soldiers reported that one of the Palestinians – visibly kneeling in front of an object just out of frame – was lighting a Molotov cocktail when he was shot.

However, the video shows that the first shot does not hit the kneeling man, but rather another Palestinian man, Nader Rimawi. Nader told the AP that the object was a pile of cardboard boxes and pieces of paper that 17-year-old Osaid Rimawi had collected and was preparing to light to keep the men warm.

Other videos of the shooting posted to social media and reviewed by AP appear consistent with Nader’s description of the object Osaid was preparing to light. It’s possible that videos shot from other angles could further clarify what happened.

In interviews with the AP, the wounded villagers denied throwing explosives and said the shootings, around 2 a.m. Friday, were unprovoked.

Two of the six Rimawi brothers were in the town square when word spread that Israeli soldiers were in the village. They said they were aware of the army’s presence but that no clashes had taken place. “We were with the young men standing at the city’s roundabout,” said Mohammed Rimawi, 25. “We started looking around while we stood and did nothing.”

The half-hour security camera video begins about twenty minutes before the shooting, with men gathering in small groups and walking in and out of frame as cars come and go. Some men gesture elsewhere in the village.

The crowd in the frame eventually thins out to less than 10 people. Then they scatter when a shot hits Mohammed’s brother, 29-year-old Nader, in the left leg.

The video shows Mohammed running to help before being shot.

“We saw a sniper who started shooting. He shot him. I went to help him. Then he shot me,” said Mohammed, who was hit by a bullet in his right hip.

The video shows Osaid coming to their aid while putting something in his pocket. He is quickly shot and later dies from his wounds. His brother, Islam Rimawi, later told AP that he found a lighter, 20 shekels ($5.36), and a pack of cigarettes in Osaid’s pocket.

Mohammed was able to crawl away, but the other two continued to roll on the ground. Nader stood up and tried to jump away before falling to the ground again. Days later, Nader said from his hospital bed that he collapsed after being shot in the right leg.

Apart from Israeli troops carrying weapons, no weapons are visible in the entire video. The shooter is also not visible.

The video showed four armored Israeli vehicles arriving about two minutes after the shooting and about a dozen soldiers getting out with their weapons in hand. They gathered around Muhammad. One soldier poked Osaid with his foot. Within four minutes, the soldiers left the wounded Palestinians on the ground and drove away, ignoring the pile of boxes and refusing to arrest them.

Another video of the shooting reviewed by the AP shows the pile of boxes then being overturned by a Palestinian car rushing to evacuate the wounded.

Shortly afterwards, Osaid, a high school student studying to become a hairdresser, was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

The military spokesman said there were other instances in which Palestinians had thrown Molotov cocktails at forces in Beit Rima that evening, but said he did not know when. The men included in the video said this was the only altercation in Beit Rima that they were aware of that evening.

The military did not respond when asked whether soldiers had violated military policy and did not say whether there would be an official investigation.

Israeli rights group B’Tselem said that even when questionable shootings are caught on camera and investigated by the military, they rarely lead to charges.

“Cases like this happen quite regularly, but no one hears about them,” said Dror Sadot, a spokesman for the group. “The military will say it is opening an investigation. And this investigation will take years, probably without the media paying attention to it. And then it gets flushed down the drain.”

In response to Sadot’s claim, a military spokesperson issued the following statement: “Each investigation file is examined based on its circumstances. Where appropriate, various enforcement measures are taken, including filing charges.”

Human rights groups have previously presented cases where soldiers opened fire without endangering their lives, in a clear violation of army rules. In most cases the victims were Palestinians, but Israelis have also been killed in high-profile shootings during the war.

In December, three Israeli hostages who escaped their Hamas captors in Gaza waved white flags and shouted for help in Hebrew before being shot by soldiers.

Sadot said her organization has seen unprecedented levels of violence from soldiers and settlers in the West Bank since the war broke out. The West Bank is experiencing one of its deadliest phases on record, according to United Nations observers.

Beit Rima resident Ahmed Rimawi, whose two brothers were injured in the shooting, said he believes soldiers have become more aggressive since the war began. In the past, they initially fired stun grenades to disperse the crowd in the village. Now, he said, “they are opening fire directly on people.”

Palestinian health officials said 340 Palestinians have been killed in the three tense months since Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

The Hamas attack prompted Israel to wage a blistering air and ground campaign on the Gaza Strip, killing more than 23,000 people — and to tighten its grip on the West Bank through near-nightly, often deadly, attacks . Israel says the crackdown targets Hamas and other militant groups.

Mohammed and Nader recover from their wounds. Both normally work in a factory in a nearby Palestinian village, packaging ready-made salads for the market. They said they won’t work again until they can walk.

Nader underwent surgery on Sunday for injuries to his thigh. Mohammed has been released from the hospital, but can no longer put weight on his right leg. Using a metal walker, he hobbles through the family’s small, ornate home in Beit Rima – a village of about 4,000 people north of the city of Ramallah.

Back at the village roundabout, the walls are plastered with the weathered faces of local men killed in encounters or clashes with Israeli forces. Among their ranks now is the photo of Osaid, staring over the pockmarked spot in the ground where he was murdered.

(Associated Press journalist Jalal Bwaitel in Beit Rima, West Bank contributed to this report.)