A sickening video has emerged on Twitter exposing a group of Israeli soldiers taunting a young man near the Al-Zaeem checkpoint northeast of Jerusalem before shooting him in the back.
The video, posted by user @shejae3a shows the group of soldiers talking to the Palestinian man before appearing to let him leave with his hands over his head. A few moments later, they shoot him and then turn away, walking in the other direction.
The next image in the same thread shows a WhatsApp conversation allegedly between the soldier and his girlfriend, in which she assures him of how “great he is” at shooting an unarmed person.
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There are widespread reports and videos of Israeli brutality against the Palestinian population, where innocent men, women and children are at the mercy of Israeli soldiers. Shooting Palestinians is often treated as a sport.
Just days ago, an Israeli soldier was sentenced to one month in prison after being convicted by a military court for the killing of a Palestinian teenager during the Great Return March in Gaza last year, a mass protest that calls for the end of Israeli’s crippling blockade of Gaza and the right for refugees to return to their homes within Israel.
Earlier this year, the United Nations said there was evidence that Israel committed crimes against humanity in responding to the protests.
Israeli snipers have targeted people clearly identifiable as children, health workers and journalists.
"Israeli soldiers committed violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. Some of those violations may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity," the chair of the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry said in a statement.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
