Israeli police accused of ‘executing’ Palestinian in West Bank

The Palestinian foreign ministry has said the shooting of a Palestinian man by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank was tantamount to an execution meant to escalate already spiralling violence in the occupied territory, Reuters news agency reported.

The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed the death on Friday.

On Twitter, the United Nations Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland said he was horrified by the latest killing and the European Union said it was concerned by what appears to be excessive use of force by Israeli security forces toward Palestinians.

On Monday, Wennesland warned the situation in the West Bank was “reaching a boiling point”.

The killing on Friday was captured on video and was widely circulated on social media. It showed an Israeli soldier holding the Palestinian man in a headlock by a road as two other men try to wrestle him away. The man then appears to strike the soldier and attempt to take hold of his rifle before the soldier pulls out a handgun and shoots him several times as he falls to the ground.

A member of the Huwara municipality, Wajeh Odeh, told Agence France-Presse news agency that the shooting followed “a quarrel”.