JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Israeli military investigation determined that a Palestinian paraplegic was not killed by Israeli troops attempting to quell a riot near the Gaza border fence.
Palestinian health officials said Ibrahim Abu Thurayya, 29, was shot in the head while demonstrating in Gaza in December against President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
The investigation revealed that Israeli snipers stopped firing at the riot at least an hour before Palestinians say the double amputee, who used a wheelchair, was killed, Ynet reported. Thurayya had said he lost his legs in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza in 2008.
About 1,000 Palestinians participated in the riot near the fence on Dec. 15. Some threw stones at the fence and hurled Molotov cocktails as well as a pipe bomb. Thurayya was a regular at such protests.
According to the investigation, Ynet reported, Thurayya visited his family the night before he was killed and apologized that he would be becoming a shahid, or martyr.
