Darwin Award Of The Day

..goes to the 17-year-old palestinian who pulled a toy gun on an IDF soldier and held it to his head.

Photo of the toy gun, courtesy of Captain Barak Raz (Twitter)

A Border Guard officer shot and killed a Palestinian youth Wednesday after he threatened troops stationed near the Cave of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron, with what later turned out to be a toy gun.

An initial inquiry derived that the Palestinian walked up to the troops stationed at the checkpoint and pulled a gun on one of the officers. A female Border Guard officer noticed the event and fired at him, killing him.

Medical sources in Hebron identified the teen as 17-year-old Muhammad Ziad Salameh. They said he suffered gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen, adding that the Palestinian EMTs that arrived at the scene were not allowed to take him to a hospital.

A few dozen Palestinians began rioting following the incident. Security forces used crowd-control measures to disperse the demonstration.

The IDF launched an investigation into the event. A statement by the by the Border Guard spokesman offered the following information:

“At about 6:30 pm a Palestinian youth arrived at a Border Guard post near the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. When one of the soldiers asked him to present identification, the youth attacked him, pulling a gun and holding it to the soldier’s head.

“A female Border Guard officer standing at the post saw what was going on and opened fire. The youth was critically injured and rushed to a local hospital, where he died of his wounds.”

According to the statement, “A riot followed the incident, but was controlled by the troops at the scene. A military sapper later determined that the weapon was a metal toy gun. The Judea and Samaria Police are looking into the matter.”

The soldier who shot the teen recounted the event: “I saw the Palestinian pull a gun out of his back pocket and hold it up to the other soldier. I knew I only had a few seconds so I cocked my weapon and looked for the right angle – so not to hurt the soldier.”

According to the soldier, she was a few yards away, at the checkpoint post, during the incident. “He (the soldier) asked a Palestinian teenager for his ID. I stepped out to fill out a checkpoint report and I saw the Palestinian attack the soldier and take out a gun.”

She said she fired three shots. “I knew that if I did anything wrong the other soldier could get killed. I know this was the mission – that I had to do it for my friend.”

According to the young soldier, fear made way to focus. “I think it was the adrenalin. The other soldier said that he owes me his life. But there’s no heroism here. This is what we’re trained to do.”

The female soldier did the right thing. We are not talking about a little kid holding an obviously fake gun. We are talking about a palestinian teenager – certainly the age we have seen some terrorists  – cocking a realistic looking toy weapon (see above photo) at a soldier’s head.

Given what we are know about palestinian efforts to elicit sympathy – even at the cost of their own health or life – I would not be surprised if the youth did what he did with the actual result being the desired one.

10 thoughts on “Darwin Award Of The Day”

  1. http://www.facebook.com/GazaTVNews

    the above filthy muzzie jihadist mouthpiece org, that somehow has a facebook page, has taken to posting the alleged photo of the border guard, which i take as an open threat

    they are also alleging that all the idiot was doing was going to buy a cake for his bday

    report this page

  2. Happens all the time in America, kids as young as 12, and this is nowhere near as dangerous as the situation faced by the IDF.

    http://www.policeone.com/officer-shootings/articles/1283535-Youth-brandishing-toy-gun-fatally-shot-by-Ark-officer/

    But in Israel it is an international incident.

    I remember my son had colored over the bright orange tip on one of his toy guns and wanted to take it out of the house. It went in the trash because even in my quiet suburban neighborhood they will shoot if it looks like a real gun.

    That is called deterrence. Israel soldiers are much too tolerant and that is why stuff like this happens. There is no fear of them.

    1. In the United States it is actually illegal to manufacture or modify a toy gun that looks like a real gun. All toy guns have to be bright neon green or orange or another color that makes it clear it is not a functional firearm. They also can’t be made of metal, only plastic. The reason for this is that there were multiple situations where police shot inner city kids who were playing with toy guns that were too “realistic”.

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