Border policemen at a roadblock near the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras El Amud shot and wounded an Israeli Arab woman in the leg after she and her husband did not stop for inspection, reported the Jerusalem Post.
It said that the two, who were en route from Abu Dis to their home in Silwan south of east Jerusalem, were asked to stop for inspection at a checkpoint on a narrow, darkened road.
The policemen opened fire on their vehicle, moderately injuring the woman, said the paper, citing Army Radio.
Police investigators are doubting the claim of the border policemen manning the roadblock, who said the couple tried to evade the checkpoint.
The police say there was no evidence that the two attempted to escape, adding that the car's vehicle inspection sticker was out of date, which was a possible reason for the couple's attempt to turn their vehicle around to avoid being stopped by soldiers in the border police unit.
Abu Ayub Mohammed, husband of the injured woman, Siam, was in the vehicle and said the border police fired in the air and then opened fire on the two.
Mohammed was interviewed on Army Radio Monday morning.
The border police was quoted by the daily as saying the incident was being investigated by the internal affairs division.
Meanwhile, seven Jerusalem policemen were indicted this week on suspicion of severely beating several Palestinians involved in the lynching of two Israeli soldiers last October in Ramallah, said a separate report by the Jerusalem Post.
One of the policemen stripped and severely beat one of the Palestinians, according to the charge sheet.
He mistakenly thought the Palestinian was the youth photographed holding his blood-soaked hands over his head, after taking part in the disemboweling of Sgt.-Maj. (res.) Vadim Novesche, 33, and Sgt.-Maj. (res.) Yosef Avrahami, at a Ramallah police station last October 12.
The policemen later threw a bucket of water over the Palestinian, in order to wash off signs of the bloody beating, Army Radio reported.
One of the policemen is charged with destroying evidence in the case, according to the charge sheet.
"Snitches have no hope, if you get the hint," one of the policemen reportedly threatened the Palestinians after the beating, the report said.
Israel’s Shin Bet Security Service kidnapped on April 24 Khalil Shawamra, a 29-year-old Palestinian policeman, on suspicion of involvement in the lynching.
Shawamra, a regular policeman in the West Bank town of El Bireh near Ramallah, was reportedly suspected of stopping the two soldiers and then taking them to a Ramallah police station.
It was also possible that he opened the doors of the police station to allow crowds of Palestinians outside access to the two Israelis, reports said then.
A statement released by Prime Ministers Ariel Sharon’s office said that “Shawamra was captured near Ramallah, after a complicated operation by the IDF and the Shin Bet.”
A week earlier, Israeli security forces arrested two other Palestinians suspected of taking part in the lynching.
A dozen suspects have been arrested, and in February two Palestinians went on trial in a military court for the lynching, which caused widespread outrage in Israel.
The Israeli government vowed that it would spare no effort in hunting down and capturing those involved, and launched a retaliatory strike on the Ramallah police station and numerous other Palestinian targets – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
