Israeli military operations have long been a fixture of life here, but they once happened mostly at night, and usually ended in apprehensions. This year, under the most right-wing government in Israeli history, a growing number of incursions have been carried out during the day, in densely packed urban areas such as Jenin. As of May 15, 108 Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, including militants and civilians,had been killed by Israeli forces, according to the United Nations<\/a>, more than double last year\u2019s toll from the same period. At least 19 were children<\/a> \u2014 including Omar, who was fatally shot during the raid in Jenin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Washington Post synchronized 15 videos and reviewed dozens more from March 16, including CCTV footage from surrounding businesses, some of which took nearly a month to surface. The Post also spoke to nine witnesses and obtained testimonies from four others to produce a 3D reconstruction of the raid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The analysis yielded three key findings:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Post’s 3D reconstruction shows civilians in the street as Israeli officers opened fire<\/p>\n\n\n\n Omar Awadin<\/p>\n\n\n\n The raid additionally appeared to violate an international ban on extrajudicial killings, experts consulted by The Postsaid, arguing that the illegality was magnified by the fact that the militants appeared to pose no imminent threat, coupled with the presence of so many civilians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The raid was conducted by Yamam, the elite unit of Israel\u2019s border police that focuses on counterterrorism operations, including raids in civilian areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dean Elsdunne, a spokesman for the Israeli police, said that security forces were in the area to \u201capprehend terrorists responsible for shooting attacks on IDF soldiers, some production of bombs and other terrorist activities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In response to initial questions about Omar, Israeli police said in an email to The Post that \u201cthe subject of your inquiry took an active part in the violent riot while endangering the lives of the troops.\u201d It\u2019s unclear what riot they were referring to, but the visual evidence reviewed by The Post showed no such riot before the shootings took place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The police declined to review The Post\u2019s evidence or to respond to follow-up questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Previously unreported files from the trove of classified U.S. documents recently leaked online<\/a> through the Discord messaging platform highlight mounting American concerns that Israeli incursions in the West Bank \u2014 including a Feb. 22 raid in Nablus<\/a> where Israeli troops fired into a group of civilians \u2014 would jeopardize international efforts to de-escalate violence in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One secret assessment of a March 7 raid<\/a> in Jenin warned that it \u201cwill almost certainly prompt Palestinian militants to retaliate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Omar spent the day of March 16 delivering packages for his father\u2019s medical supply shop. At about 3:10 p.m., he dropped off his last package at a nearby pharmacy, CCTV footage obtained by The Post shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The eldest of the family\u2019s three children and the only boy, Omar was exceptionally kind, his mother recalled, always trying to include other children who did not have the same advantages. He loved to joke around and would go swimming or hiking on his days off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After leaving the shop, he cycled past his father, who was driving in the opposite direction. \u201cWe met by chance,\u201d his father, Mohammad Awadin, said. \u201cHe asked for 10 shekels to buy some clothes, but there was a police officer behind me so I couldn\u2019t stop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Omar made his way back to his father\u2019s shop, the raid began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just a few feet away from him, two Palestinian militants \u2014 Nidal Khazem, 28, and Yousef Shreim, 29 \u2014 walked side by side along the street. Khazem and Shreim passed the second silver sedan, now stopped in traffic, where Yamam agents were waiting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shreim found his balance and continued to run, video shows. As he turned a corner, another barrage of gunfire followed. Israeli forces fired at least five times after he was first hit, video shows. His body visibly convulsed with the additional fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The officers then retreated back toward their vehicle. Two \u2014 one holding a handgun, the other a rifle \u2014 crouched down next to Khazem\u2019s body and shot him in the head at point-blank range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Post blurred sections of the video because of its graphic nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Roughly 25 yards away, Omar lay on his side and rolled to his stomach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI went to Omar and asked him what is wrong,\u201d said Abdallah Abahrah, owner of the cosmetics shop on the block. \u201cHe said, \u2018I fell.\u2019 I asked him if he was hit; he said \u2018no.\u2019 We had a conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was no blood around Omar, Abahrah recalled. But then his face began to turn yellow and the area around his eyes took on a bluish hue. \u201cI was holding his hands and they started to feel as cold as ice,\u201d Abahrah said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Abahrah and another man turned him over and saw he had been shot in his back. As they tried to help him, one of the cars carrying Israeli forces drove by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No ambulance could reach the scene because of the traffic and the chaos that followed the raid, Abahrah said, so the men loaded Omar into a car and rushed him to the hospital. He was dead when he arrived, according to the hospital report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Post shared its findings with five experts in international law, all of whom said the deadly raid appeared to violate the prohibition on extrajudicial killings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne can say with a degree of confidence that these are extrajudicial executions,\u201d said Philip Alston, who was the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions between 2004 and 2010, after reviewing the evidence provided by The Post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These particular killings were \u201cprofoundly unlawful\u201d under international standards, according to Michael Lynk, who served as the U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in the Palestinian territories until last year. He added that the unlawfulness was \u201cheightened by the apparent choice to conduct these targeted killings in a busy civilian market.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Israeli law provides much more latitude to its forces during anti-terrorism operations \u2014 even when, as in this instance, the apparent targets were not visibly armed and there was no exchange of gunfire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Michael Sfard, a human rights lawyer who has challenged the legality of targeted killings at Israel\u2019s Supreme Court, described the Jenin raid as \u201cextremely typical of how Israel conducts its lethal-force operations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The basic principle, said Roni Pelli, an attorney with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, \u201cis that you open fire only if you are at risk.\u201d But the question of what constitutes risk is murky under Israeli law \u2014 intentionally so, rights groups contend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A 2006 ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court set a broad definition for when alleged militants can be targeted, legalizing hits on individuals whom security forces believe to have links to militant groups, even if they do not pose a direct threat at the time of the operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Khazem was a member of the Islamic Jihad militant group, while Shreim belonged to the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, making them legitimate targets under Israeli law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Israeli and international law are in accord on a key point: Once a person is no longer a threat, they cannot be targeted with lethal force. The shooting of Khazem in the head while he was immobilized was thus likely to be illegal, experts in Israeli law said \u2014 reminiscent of a 2017 case<\/a> when an Israeli court sentenced a military medic to 18 months in jail for fatally shooting a wounded and disarmed Palestinian attacker in Hebron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elor Azaria, the medic, had acted as \u201cboth judge and executioner,\u201d the judge ruled. Azaria\u2019s sentence was reduced to 14 months on appeal and he was released after nine, hailed as a hero by far-right politicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe raid<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Profoundly unlawful\u2019 killings<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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