In images captured on Saturday, June 22, from a house in Jenin in the West Bank, we see an injured man strapped to the hood of a military Jeep during an Israeli army operation.
Images that make you react. This Saturday, June 22, Israeli soldiers tied a wounded Palestinian to the hood of a military vehicle during an Israeli army operation in Jenin, according to army statements this Sunday, June 23, admitting that the soldiers had broken army rules.
Images of this scene have gone viral and show a man, visibly injured, tied across the hood of a jeep passing on a relatively narrow street. According to medical sources, he is Moujahid Raed Abbadi, 24, from Jabriyat, between Burqin and Jenin, in the north of the occupied West Bank.
“Behavior” not “in accordance with values”
“During counterterrorism operations aimed at apprehending wanted suspects in the Wadi Burqin area, terrorists opened fire on troops,” the Israeli army said.
During this exchange of fire between soldiers and armed people, the Israeli army explains that “one of the suspects was injured and apprehended.” He was “tied” to the vehicle as part of his arrest, the army says, specifying that this arrest was made “in violation of orders and standard operating procedures”.
“The behavior of the troops in the video (…) is not consistent with the values” of the Israeli army, she added in the same press release, specifying that an investigation will be carried out.
According to the army, the man strapped to the vehicle was later transferred to the Palestinian Red Crescent to receive necessary medical treatment. Doctors at Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin confirmed to AFP that Moujahid Raed Abbadi was being treated at the establishment.
The victim “operated urgently”
Moujahid Raed Abbadi explained to AFP that he had been injured by gunfire and remained unable to move for more than two hours behind an Israeli military vehicle.
“When they [des soldats] came up to me, they stepped on my head, hit me in the face, in the legs or on my hands, which had been injured, they were laughing,” he says.
He said that these soldiers “lifted him up”, “threw him to the ground”, then “threw him on the hood of a jeep” which was then hot, according to him.
Moujahid Raed Abbadi “has a fracture” and “lesions”, he was “operated on urgently” and will have to be operated on again, according to Bahaa Abou Hammad, a surgeon at the hospital. “He has a burn on his back, from the neck to the lower back,” he added.
553 Palestinians killed according to authorities
The city of Jenin and the surrounding refugee camps have for years been the scene of confrontations between the Israeli army and Palestinian armed groups. The level of violence in the West Bank, which was already high before the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas erupted on October 7 after an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil, has only intensified since then.
According to the Palestinian authorities, in this territory under occupation for almost 60 years, at least 553 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers since the war in Gaza broke out.
Palestinian attacks killed at least 14 Israelis in the West Bank during the same period, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.
