Report: Autopsy finds live fire killed Palestinian teen during Nakba Day clashes

According to Palestinian media, results of forensic exam indicate IDF forces are responsible for killing Nadim Nuwara during anti-Israel riots.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, REUTERS
Footage of the killing of two Palestinian teens by IDF troops near Ramallah last week. (photo credit: YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT)
Footage of the killing of two Palestinian teens by IDF troops near Ramallah last week.
(photo credit: YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT)
An autopsy performed on Wednesday on the body of a Palestinian teenager killed last month during Nakba Day clashes in Beiytuna concluded that Nadim Nuwara, 17, had been killed by live fire, Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported.
According to the report, the autopsy results so far indicated that IDF forces were responsible for the death of one of two teens during anti-Israel demonstrations on May 15 in the West Bank.
Palestinian medics have previously claimed that Nuwara and Muhammad Abu Thahr, 16, were shot dead by Israeli troops using live ammunition during the protests.
Ma'an cited an unnamed source familiar with the autopsy proceedings as saying examiners had found bullet piercing in Nuwara's body, and located entry and exit marks of a bullet.
Forensic investigators were conducting tests on remaining shrapnel and fragments found during the examination, the source said.
Both teenagers were buried the day after they were killed. Palestinian officials said an autopsy would be performed on Nuwara's body on Wednesday, at his family's request.
Palestinian, US and Danish pathologists were reportedly present at the autopsy in the Palestinian Institute of Forensic Medicine in the West Bank town of Abu Dis.
Video from security cameras on Palestinian properties close to the scene of last month's protest showed the two teenagers falling to the ground in separate incidents. Palestinians have claimed that the footage proves that the teenagers were shot despite posing no immediate threat to Israeli forces.
New York-based Human Rights Watch, in a report published on Monday and entitled "Killing of Children Apparent War Crime", said the Israeli military's assertion that its forces had not fired live ammunition does not stand up to scrutiny.
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon has suggested the surveillance video might have been doctored, an allegation the human rights groups that distributed the material have denied.
The demonstration that Thahr and Nuwara attended was at times violent, with Palestinian youths hurling stones at the Israeli forces. But the security cameras suggested there was no stone throwing going on when the two teenagers were shot.