JERUSALEM (AP) – A 21-year-old Palestinian man died on Saturday from a head wound sustained last month after Israeli police fired rubber bullets at stone-throwing Palestinian demonstrators during violence at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site.
Israel’s Hadassah Hospital announced the death early on Saturday, saying only that Waleed Shareef had died weeks after being hospitalised with severe head injuries. His family confirmed the death. Shareef was injured on April 22 in the Al Aqsa Mosque compound.
Amateur video from the time shows a large group of Palestinians running away from the direction of heavy Israeli fire.
Immediately after one shot, Shareef is seen falling on his face and lying motionless on the ground. Israeli police quickly evacuated him.
Palestinian witnesses and Shareef’s family said he was shot in the head with a rubber bullet, while Israeli authorities have suggested he died from injuries sustained when he fell on the ground.
The family’s lawyer, Firas Jebreeni, said the family has rejected an Israeli request for an autopsy, but that police refused to let them see the body and removed it without permission to Israel’s main forensics institute. He said he has appealed to an Israeli court to prevent the autopsy and return the body to the family.
