Soldiers shoot and kill Salah Sawafteh (58), who was endangering no one; military again rushes to deny responsibility, Tubas, 19 August 2022

In the early morning hours of Friday, 19 August 2022, Israeli troops entered the West Bank town of Tubas. During clashes that erupted between the soldiers and local youths, some of the latter threw stones at the soldiers while others fired shots at them. The soldiers fired shots.

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At around 5:00 A.M., six soldiers entered an office building on the town’s main street and took up positions inside offices located on the third floor. Shortly afterwards, they fired through the windows at Palestinians who were firing at them from a nearby alley. When morning prayers ended at 5:20 A.M., worshippers began exiting a mosque located farther along the street, about 200 meters away from the building. One of them was Salah Sawafteh (58), who was walking home along the sidewalk across the street from the office building. While the worshipers were dispersing, several military jeeps drove up and parked by the building.

Security camera footage and videos filmed at the scene showed Sawafteh walking briskly along the main street towards his home at around 5:30 A.M. As he reached the doorway to the a-Siraj bakery, which lies about 100 meters south of the office building, he was shot in the head by soldiers hiding in the building, and collapsed. Less than a minute later, an ambulance that was nearby drove up and took him to hospital.

The military quickly claimed it was highly probable that Sawafteh was shot by Palestinian militants. B’Tselem’s investigation, however, found that the armed Palestinians were located northwest of the a-Siraj bakery and did not have a direct line of fire to the spot where Sawafteh was shot. Also, a pathologist’s examination commissioned by B’Tselem found that the bullet penetrated Sawafteh’s head from the right, which was the direction facing the office building used by the soldiers. The military also claimed that “the snipers who had been operating in the village left their positions before Sawafteh was shot, and the military vehicles taking part in the operation were already driving out.” In fact, the military vehicles left the scene only about two minutes after Sawafteh was taken away by ambulance, as clearly seen in the video footage. According to media reports, no decision had been made yet as to whether to launch a Military Police investigation into the incident.

When Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed on 11 May 2022, the Israeli military quickly denied any responsibility for her death, placing the blame on armed Palestinians. Several weeks later, it was forced to admit – albeit halfheartedly and under US pressure – that it was “highly probable” Israeli gunfire had killed Abu Akleh. Three months later, the military once again offered the same knee-jerk response, flatly denying responsibility for Sawafteh’s killing – in contradiction of the facts, and without providing any proof.

The military’s lies cannot hide the facts: Sawafteh’s shooting was no aberration, but rather a part of Israel’s unlawful, immoral open-fire policy in the Occupied Territories, which permits soldiers to use live fire against Palestinians with no justification whatsoever. Soldiers who shoot Palestinians, even when the result is lethal, enjoy virtually complete immunity and full backing from senior military and government officials, no matter the circumstances. This policy illustrates, more than anything, how little Palestinian lives matter to Israel. 

Below are some of the testimonies B’Tselem field researcher ‘Aref Daraghmeh collected from eyewitnesses.

In his testimony, A. (50), a taxi driver from Tubas who saw Sawafteh walking home from the mosque moments before he was shot, said:

At around 5:00 A.M., I went to pray at the old mosque after working all night. On the way there, I heard people saying there were troops in Tubas.

When the prayers were over and we left the mosque, other worshippers told me to be careful because soldiers had gone into a building across the street from the taxi stand where I work, on the main street. I took a detour and headed to the stand to see if there really were soldiers in the area. From afar, I saw Salah Sawafteh, who had been praying with me at the mosque earlier, going down the street that leads directly to the taxi stand.

A few moments after I got to the stand, I saw military jeeps drive up and park under the office building across from the stand. Shots were being fired from several directions at the time, especially from the top part of the building.

I filmed what was happening on my phone, when the shots came in quick succession. After about a minute, when the shooting stopped, I heard the sound of an ambulance siren coming from the south side of the street, so I assumed someone had been hurt. A few minutes later, soldiers came out of the building, got into the jeeps that were waiting outside, and drove south.

Zakaria sawafteh (27), from Tubas, works at the a-Siraj bakery and witnessed Salah sawafteh being hit. He described what he saw:

At around 5:30 A.M., I parked the car across from the bakery. I was about to unload supplies when I heard shots coming from the north and saw Salah sawafteh heading towards the bakery, trying to escape the shooting. When he was very close to the bakery, I saw one of the workers, ‘Abd al-Majid al-Masri, pop his head out and immediately take it back inside. Just then, sawafteh was shot in the head and fell down.

I walked about 150 meters away and called out to the driver of an ambulance that was parked there. He quickly drove to the bakery and took sawafteh to hospital. When I went back to the bakery, everything was covered in blood.

I knew Salah well. He came by the bakery every morning on his way to the mosque. On the way back, he’d also stop and have coffee with us. He was just an older man going home after morning prayers. I don’t understand why they killed him.

H., (29), the ambulance driver who took sawafteh to hospital, said:

On 19 August 2022, military troops came into Tubas and clashed with young guys who threw stones and fired shots at them, so I was on call with the ambulance all night.

At around 5:00 A.M., while I was standing with the ambulance near the a-Siraj bakery, I saw several soldiers go into an office building on the main street. The soldiers turned the third floor lights on and off. About 20 minutes later, the prayers ended and worshippers started coming out of the mosque. That was when exchanges of fire started between the soldiers, who were on the third floor, and young guys who were shooting at them from one of the alleys off the main street. I backed the ambulance up about 150 meters and parked in a spot that seemed safer.

A few minutes later, some young guys came over to me and said there was a wounded man lying on the ground in the a-Siraj bakery. The paramedic and I got there within seconds. We took the stretcher out and the paramedic went over to the wounded man. Then a local resident who was there helped us get the man into the ambulance. The clashes were still underway, so we took a detour to get to the Turkish Hospital. The wounded man, Salah sawafteh, had been shot in the right side of the head. He must have hit his head hard when he fell, which may have exacerbated his condition. His condition was serious, so he was transferred to Rafidya Hospital in Nablus. He was declared a martyr two hours later.