Israel’s police are supporting the officer who shot and killed 12-year-old Rami Hamdan in the Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem Tuesday. They say the officer was acting according to regulations, despite concerns among senior officers about the potential for escalation of tensions. Hamdan was reportedly holding a stick with a firework on it when he was shot through his torso.
Officers are permitted to shoot people using fireworks that seem like they are meant to hurt officers since that kind of situation has happened in the past. Justice Ministry officials suggest the likelihood of charges against the officer is low, citing past court rulings favoring officers in similar circumstances.
His family say the young boy had just come out of the mosque and had been playing with his friends for Ramadan. They also note that the officer shot him from above where the officer was elevated and could not have been reached by the fire work. Authorities took the young man’s body and had it autopsied and are only permitting the funeral to have fifty guests. Hamdan’s brother Khaled told Haaretz newspaper “Someone killed your boy, and you can’t do anything except say God gave and God took away.” The incident is under investigation.
