On the day of her 16th birthday, Fulla Masalmeh was laid to rest in a cement-lined tomb with just one flowery marker.
That day, instead of the party her family had planned, they bid farewell to their “great and lovely” daughter, who had struggled with autism and had grown up in poverty.
Fulla was slain by Israeli forces who shot many times at the automobile she was in the day before.
Eyewitnesses and Fulla’s family dispute the army’s claim that the vehicle, driven by a 26-year-old Palestinian male, ignored requests to stop and drove towards them. Later, the army claimed that a drunken driver had been discovered.
It has been thrown out.The case has thrown a fresh spotlight on Israel’s use of lethal force in what the United Nations (UN) says is the deadliest year for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since 2005, following a series of deadly Palestinian attacks against Israelis.
According to information obtained from BBC News, the IDF says soldiers had seen a “suspicious vehicle” heading in their direction and ordered it to stop, which it says it did “for a few seconds”.
But the army says the car then accelerated towards the soldiers who “responded with fire”. It added that the driver was later found to be under the influence of alcohol.
Anas Hassouna, aged 26, was wounded, detained by Israeli forces and taken to hospital.
The BBC spoke to three eyewitnesses who live in an apartment block overlooking the scene, all of whom said they saw no attempt to run over the soldiers.
“The driver was not attacking anyone, he was surprised by them,” said a resident who called himself Qusay and asked for his full name not to be published for fear of losing his permit to cross military checkpoints for work in Israel.
“The car passed by and it had been raining, thunder and lightning, [so] the driver had the windows closed and possibly he didn’t hear them.”
The Israeli military says soldiers opened fire after the car sped towards them.
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