Israeli police say Palestinian shot dead at checkpoint

Israeli security forces gather at the site of a reported ramming attack at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank near the village of Abu Dis on June 23, 2020. (AFP)

• The man ‘drove his vehicle quickly toward’ a border police officer

JERUSALEM: A Palestinian driver died Tuesday after he was shot by an Israeli policeman at a checkpoint in the West Bank in what police said was an attempted attack on Israeli military personnel.
Israeli police said the driver attempted to run over a member of the paramilitary border police at the checkpoint east of Jerusalem and an officer at the scene opened fire at the vehicle.
The driver later died of his wounds and the border police officer suffered minor injuries, police said.
Police did not immediately release video of the incident, and there was no way to independently verify the account.
But police released a photo that appeared to show the vehicle after it had collided into the checkpoint.
In recent years, Israel has seen car-ramming attacks, shootings and stabbings carried out mostly by lone Palestinian attackers with no apparent links to armed groups.
Palestinians and human rights groups have also accused Israeli security forces of using excessive force, or in some cases opening fire at cars that merely lost control.
Tuesday’s incident came as the Israeli government says it is advancing plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank in line with the Trump administration’s Mideast plan as early as July 1.
The Israeli annexation proposal has outraged the Palestinian leadership, which has rejected the Trump plan out of hand, and drawn condemnation from much of the international community.