Palestinian shot by Israeli police called ‘no threat to anyone’

JERUSALEM — Israeli police fatally shot a Palestinian man who was later found to have been unarmed, threatening to inflame tensions already heightened by the economic stress caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the prospect that Israel will soon annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

In a statement, police said units on patrol near the Lions Gate of Jerusalem’s historic Old City spotted a man carrying what officers believed was a pistol.

They said the man fled when confronted, leading to a foot chase that also involved members of Israel’s Border Police. During the pursuit, the man was fatally shot by officers.

Police did not say whether a weapon has been found, although an Israeli TV station reported he was found to have been unarmed.

The victim was identified as Iyad Elkhalak, 32, who lived in the mostly Arab neighbourhood of Wadi Joz in East Jerusalem. His family described Elkhalak to reporters as autistic and said he was on his way a school for students with disabilities in the Old City, where he was a student and employee.

A member of his family, speaking to the Ha’aretz newspaper, denied Elkhalak would have been carrying a weapon and said he would not have been a threat. His relatives speculated that Elkhalak panicked when confronted by police and ran out of fear.

Adnan Toutah, one of Elkhalak’s instructors at the Elwyn El Quds school, described him a quiet student who worked in the kitchen and took the same route to school every day.

“He was no threat to anyone,” Toutah said.

The incident comes as emotions were already flaring over Israel’s unilateral annexation plans, expected to come up for debate by the government in July. The West Bank’s governing Palestinian Authority has begun to sever long-standing security and police co-operation with Israel over the move, sanctioned by the Trump peace plan.

In a tweet, Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, described Elkhalak’s killing as an “assassination” and a “new crime that will be met with impunity unless the world stops treating Israel as a state above the law.”