Video shows Israeli police beating Palestinian teenager
Shocking amateur footage appears to show Israeli police beating a teenage boy – said to be the cousin of a Palestinian teenager found dead three days ago – during clashes in Jerusalem.
The video, shown on a Palestinian television channel, shows police beating the boy who has been named as 15-year-old American citizen Tareq Abu Khudair.
Tareq is said to be the second cousin of Mohammed Abu Khudair who was found dead in Jerusalem on Wednesday. According to initial autopsy findings Mohammed was burned alive, the Palestinian attorney-general is reported as having said.
The beating is reported to have taken place in the Shufat nieghbourhod of Jerusalem during clashes between protesters and police.
Below: amateur footage of israeli police beating Palestinian teenager. Warning: viewers may find this footage distressing.
However Salah el-Din Abu Khudair, Tareq’s father, said his son had not been involved in the clashes, and had been merely watching.
He said: “This boy, fifteen years old. He is a dangerous? What, he has in his hand a gun? You found a gun or you found a rock, to hit him?
“Okay, you lock him up and you hit him bad and you hold him like this in your hand. After you held him, you hit him again and again and again in his face?”
Read more from International Editor Lindsey Hilsum: Palestinians, Israelis and an eye for an eye: why it never stops
Israeli police said the incident in the video occurred when six masked demonstrators were being arrested, some of them carrying knives.
No charges have been brought against Abu Khudair, his lawyer said, but he has been detained until Sunday morning.
Tensions have been high since the discovery of the body of Mohammed Abu Khudair, who some Palestinians believe was kidnapped and killed in retaliation for the deaths of three Israeli teenagers who were abducted on June 12.