Ramallah: Israeli occupation forces shot and killed a Palestinian at the entrance of Al Aqsa Mosque while on his way to offer Fajr prayers at the holy shrine on Monday.
Ebrahim Mahmoud Matar, 25, from the Jabal Al Mukaber neighbourhood of the holy city, was shot several times at point blank range, Sulaiman Shoqairat, head of local defence committee of Jabal Al Mukaber, told Gulf News.
Israeli occupation forces claim that Matar stabbed two border police officers, seriously injuring one of them, and that he was shot and killed in retaliation.
Matar was detained by occupation forces at the Lion’s Gate Police Station before he was allowed to go.
“When he stepped out of the station he was shot dead,” Shoqairat said adding that many eyewitnesses could attest to this account.
Matar’s family has called on Israel to release video surveillance footage in the area which they say will prove the Israeli version of events are concocted.
Matar was known as a calm and pious young man who kept out of politics. He did not belong to any Palestinian faction.
Following the murder, his home was raided by Israeli forces who detained his father, brother and uncle.
Relatives and neighbours were also banned from approaching the house.
Since October 2015, Israel and the Palestinian territories have been rocked by a wave of violence due to an uptick in Jewish raids on Al Haram Al Sharif.
Palestinians fear that the decades-old status quo at the holy shrine of Al Haram Al Sharif in occupied East Jerusalem will be shattered by far right Jewish groups, which advocate for more Jewish worshipping rights.
Jews are allowed to visit the shrine, but they are strictly banned from praying there. Israel captured and annexed the eastern part of Jerusalem in 1967, but the move has never been recognised by the international community.
