Ramallah: The family of Omar Al Qawasmi who was mistakenly killed on Friday morning by Israeli soldiers say they will sue the Israeli Army once their mourning period is over.
Sobhi Al Qawasmi, the victim's son, told Gulf News that his family was still in mourning.
"Once we are finished with the condolences, we will start official procedures, hire a lawyer and file a case against the Israeli Army," he said.
"We will study the circumstances and see the best possible court to file the case, and the Israeli Higher Court of Justice is an option.
"Any other court in the world is a possibility.
"We will never leave the blood of our father and his life just wasted for nothing, and the act of the Israeli soldier will never pass unpunished.
"We will use all the texts, photos and videos and other relative sources to indict the Israeli Army which officially admitted the killing of my father was a mistake and indicted themselves," he said.
Killed while sleeping
"The admittance to their crime was not enough for us, and that those who killed him on his bed while he was asleep should be punished."
Sobhi said that the Israeli soldiers were taken by surprise when they realised they were in the house of Omar Al Qawasmi and that they had killed the wrong man. They were after Wael Al Bitar who lived in the same building but on a different floor.
Sobhi said that the wanted Hamas member lived on the second floor but the Israeli soldiers raided his family's first floor and never interacted with anybody.
They had reached his father on his bed assuming he was Al Bitar and killed him in a barbarian and brutal way and later arrested Al Bitar, Sobhi said.
The 65-year-old Omar Al Qawasmi was a father for five sons and four daughters and lived in Al Shaikh neighbourhood close to the Israeli colony in the middle of the city of Hebron in the West Bank.
Sobhia, wife of Al Qawasmi, told Gulf News that she was praying when the Israeli soldiers raided her house. They found her husband sleeping in his bedroom and shot him dead.
She stressed that the Israeli soldiers did not allow anybody to see Al Qawasmi on his bed after they had killed him.
"The Israeli soldiers instructed me to bring the identity card of my husband and they took the card and the man's dead body and left the house, allowing nobody to see him," she said.
"The Israeli soldiers locked all my family members in the different rooms of the house and never allowed us to see Omar," she said.
Hunger strike
Six Hamas members detained by the Palestinian Authority at a detention centre in Bethlehem were on a hunger strike for a couple of months until they were returned to their homeland of Hebron on Thursday after Arab mediation. President Mahmoud Abbas instructed the Palestinian Intelligence to release them.
They had been released on Thursday evening, and spent a few hours at large when the Israeli Army conducted an operation in Hebron and arrested them all, killing Al Qawasmi by mistake.
Hani Al Masri, a political analyst told Gulf News that the killing of Al Qawasmi proved the Israelis are trying to weaken the Palestinian Authority.
He said that the Israeli Army did not give any credence to the detention and release orders of the Palestinian Authority, which would only weaken the Palestinian National Authority.
Shot dead: Ambulances barred
Ramallah: Israeli soldiers at Al Hamra Checkpoint shot and killed a Palestinian, the second victim at the same checkpoint. The ambulances of the Palestinian Red Crescent were standing just 100m from the victim, when Israeli soldiers preventing them from reaching him.
Sources at the Palestinian Medics and First Aid Department told Gulf News that the 24-year-old Khaldoun Majed Najeeb Al Samoudi was targeted when he was crossing the checkpoint. The Israeli soldiers did not allow the medics and the ambulances to reach the victim.
The victim was on his way to Jericho and got out of a taxi to cross the checkpoint, to take another taxi to his destination.
