A disabled Palestinian activist who had lost his legs in an air strike has been shot dead by the Israeli military as he protested against the decision of U.S. President Trump to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, according to The Guardian.
29-year-old Ibraheem Abu Thuraya, who was wheelchair-bound, was one of four Palestinians who was killed during last Friday’s violent clashes, according to officials.
Numerous witnesses, as well as photographs, confirmed that he was unarmed at the time of the protest and it is believed that he was killed by a sniper.
Thuraya washed cars for a living and told Shehab News in 2016 that he hoped he could go abroad one day to get prosthetic legs.
The Palestinian Authority’s health ministry said that Thuraya was shot just east of Gaza City, with the Israeli army saying it opened fire on the "main instigators" of violent protests at the Gaza border.
In addition, 31-year-old Yasser Sokhar was also killed during the same encounter against Israel's occupying military force.
"He went alone every day to the border."
Overall, on Gaza’s border with Israel, 82 Palestinians were injured, five of them seriously, the health ministry's spokesperson Ashraf al-Kidra stated.
Thuraya had previously lost his legs and a kidney in an air strike, according to local reports, and was regularly seen with other Palestinian activists at protests.
"He was injured in 2008 by an Israeli helicopter that targeted him after he brought down the Israeli flag and raised the Palestinian flag along the border," his brother Samir told AFP.
"It did not stop him from demonstrating for Jerusalem. He went alone every day to the border," he added.
"This land is our land. We are not going to give up..."
"The fact he was killed today by ‘sniper’ bullets may mean to Palestinians that his murder was a perpetrated act and not an act of military or security necessity," Fadi Al-Qadi, a Middle East and human rights expert based in Jordan, told Newsweek.
A Facebook video posted two days before his death showed Thuraya walking on his hands without a wheelchair.
"This land is our land. We are not going to give up. America has to withdraw its declaration," he is heard saying in the video.
His funeral took place on Saturday, The Guardian reported.
Protests and clashes erupted after U.S. President Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel
Just a few weeks ago, U.S. President Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, parting ways with the positions of close allies and breaking with decades of established American foreign policy.
Also, in a strongly critical statement issued following an emergency meeting, the Arab League warned that Trump's move "deepens tension, ignites anger and threatens to plunge the region into more violence and chaos".
