Israeli guards shoot Palestinian who refused to stop, not realizing he was deaf

Security guards, not knowing he was deaf, shot and wounded a man who had walked into a restricted area.

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

Security guards at a busy checkpoint north of Jerusalem shot and wounded a Palestinian man Monday who had walked into a restricted area and ignored their calls to stop.

The 60-year-old man had entered a cars-only area at the busy Qalandiya crossing and failed to heed warnings from guards, who followed standard protocol to get the man to stop before opening fire.

“Security guards at the Qalandiya crossing spotted a suspect who walked in an area where only vehicles are permitted,” the police foreign press spokesman said.

“The guards called upon him to stop and he continued to approach them suspiciously. The guards fired warning shots, and when he continued to approach them, the suspect was shot in the leg [and] injured lightly/ moderately.”

Only after arresting the man did police discover that the  incident was not terror related and the man “did not hear or respond as he is hearing and speech impaired,” police said.

The injured man was transported to Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem for treatment.

There have been several security incidents at Jerusalem area checkpoints over the past few months.

In June, an Israeli border policewoman was injured when a Palestinian purposefully drove into her and sent her flying at another Jerusalem area border crossing. The Palestinian driver was shot and killed by other security guards, while the officer sustained only light injuries despite being slammed to the ground in the incident.

There is a history of terrorists carrying out attacks in order to prove they are not collaborators with Israel. In other incidents, Palestinians have committed “suicide-by-IDF,” similar to the phenomenon known as “suicide-by-cop.” The Washington DC-based Police Executive Research Forum estimates that there are about 100 such incidents in the U.S. each year.

A 2017 report by the IDF showed that in several cases, Palestinians who were initially thought to have been killed while carrying out terror attacks were later found to have been suicidal due to domestic problems, depression, despair or mental illness.