Israeli Soldier Kills Teenage Girl

While Samah Zuhair Mubarak was walking to checkpoint carrying her school bag, she was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers. Mubarak was 16 years old and it was believed she was carrying a knife attempting to stab an Israeli soldier. However, no Israeli soldier was harmed during the incident. Israeli police have released footage has to what had occurred that seems to have been edited. The video shows Mubarak wearing a black niqab and carrying her school bag approaching the az-Za’ayyem checkpoint in the occupied West Bank. It shows an altercation from a distance in which a person appears to stumble or lunge forward, and then a fall backward onto the ground. It is uncertain as to what had occurred seconds, prior to the incident as the video has been altered. There is also footage of soldiers handcuffing the clearly immobilised Mubarak who is lying on the ground while another soldier points a rifle at her. It was reported by many local media organisations that first responders were prevented by the Israeli soldiers to aide Mubarak. It is evident through the images that have been released by the Israeli police or those circulating social media that no attempt was given at saving her life by medical personnel or examination of her body. In reference to such incidents in the past, Amnesty International has stated that it is “a basic duty under international law to provide medical aid to the wounded, and failure to do so – especially intentional failure – violates the prohibition on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.” Israeli forces took Mubarak’s body away to an unknown location via ambulance, this is done to prevent her family from burying her according to tradition. A family member told Palestinian media that following the killing of Mubarak, her father Zuhair Mubarak was summoned for interrogation, but then detained at Ofer military prison. Samah’s uncle, Fathi al-Khalidi said,

“Samah has childish personality, she has no extremist thought or ideology, she comes from a religious family, we are all religious, and she would not do what Israel claims.”

Samah is the third Palestinian child to be killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of 2019.